Chapter 152

After knocking on Sunset’s door, Rarity, Aria Blaze and I stood silent in the apartment hallway, waiting for an answer.

Aria looked apprehensive.

Several seconds passed before the deadbolt clicked and the door swung open, revealing a somewhat high-strung looking Sunset.

“Hey,” she said quickly. “You better get in here; they’re talking about the fire on the news.”

I put my hands out to slow her down. “OK, Sunny, just… wait a sec,” I said, to which she responded with an impatient scowl. “Is Sonata here?”

“What!?” she sneered. “Golds, you need to get in here; you’re not gonna believe what they’re saying on TV!”

“Just… Sunny! Is Sonata here or not?”

She paused again, confused and frustrated. “No, Pinkie took her out to Flutters’ house to hang out with Link until this blows over. Why?”

“Oh. Well… she, uh… has a visitor,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder to get her to lean her head into the hall, where Rarity and Aria stood just out of her sight.

“Oh. Shit,” Sunset said, eyes wide.

“Yeah. Turns out there’s a lot more going on here than we thought,” I said, prompting Sunset to look at me.

“You don’t know the half of it,” she replied.

I cocked my head at this. “Huh? What does that mean?”

“Like I said, you need to get in here. They’re talking some crazy shit on the news,” she explained.

“What kinda crazy shit?”

“I--just get in here!” she barked, grabbing my shirt to pull me inside.

***

It was a full house inside the red-head’s apartment. Everyone, including Twilight and Pinkie --who’d just returned a few minutes before we got there-- was present.

Most of the group was gathered near the table and partway into the living room, where those who had a view of the screen had their eyes glued to it. This, of course, included Rarity and I.

Aria stood off to the side, looking extremely out of place, having just been examined by Sunset.

As Rarity and I were immersed in the news’ bizarre reporting of the fire, I felt something thin and stiff brush the side of my head, accompanied by the scent of cigar smoke. I turned my head to find Applejack leaning in close, her hat inadvertently bumping the side of my head.

“How’s Rarity doin?” she asked.

“Um…” I glanced at the fashionista. “About like you’d expect.”

“Huh.” The farm girl folded her arms and brought her eyes back to the TV. “Whaddaya make of all this?” she asked, reading the headline banner yet again.

I shook my head, slowly. “I dunno. I don’t get it.”

Rarity stood next to my right with Fluttershy on her right, glaring at the TV with her hand covering her mouth as she listened to the report.

”Again, the city of Canterlot, stunned to see its would-be hero turn on one of her citizens,” the reporter said, holding with a microphone to her chin with the charred and soaked remains of the shop in the background. It was still light out, indicating this coverage was not live. ”The Carousel Boutique, a mainstay of the city’s landscape since 1973, has been reduced to ashes by the masked vigilante, but why? And who will her next target be? This unprovoked attack has left the people of Canterlot not only frightened, but also confused.”

The shot cut away to several short interviews with random citizens.

”I… I just can’t believe it. It makes me really sad to see this. I thought she was here to help people. Why would she go and do this? I don’t get it.”

“It’s gotta be a mistake. I think someone set her up. There’s no way she would do this!”

“Man, you people actually put all yo’ faith in some crazy bitch in a leather suit? Y’all are so dumb. You really dumb. For real.”

The footage then returned to the reporter, still standing in front of the site. ”Now, the row buildings behind me have stood since the early days of this city and have housed many businesses that have some and gone: a bakery, a pharmacy --which is still in business to my right-- and the long standing, iconic boutique that is now little more than rubble. And not only are the citizens devastated to see the shop gone, its workers have also been stripped of their job, and are feeling the loss particularly hard. Just moments ago, Channel Four was able to catch up with the only employee of the boutique, Miss Coco Pommel.”

Another cutaway placed the timid, young lady on the screen, already in mid-sentence. ”…really hard, yeah. Seeing it go up like this is... it’s tough.” She paused for a moment, nodding as she listened to the reporter’s next question. ”Yeah, I mean, it’s not the end. Like, this place was obviously insured, so it’s not like it can’t be rebuilt, but… the time and the work, the heart, and the memories… those things can’t be replaced,” she said, giving a solemn nod before the screen cut back once again to the reporter.

”The owner of the boutique, a young entrepreneur know only as ‘Rarity’ could not be reached for comment, but according to sources who claim to be in the know, she has taken the news of this destruction very personally. A third generation operator, Miss Rarity inherited the business --which was opened by her grandmother in the early seventies-- from her mother directly after high school, and has been taking the company in a forward direction ever since. One can only imagine the pain caused by something like this, seeing what is essentially a family heirloom destroyed by a mysterious figure, for mysterious reasons. From Channel Four: Big City News, this is Trisha Horsename. Back to you.”

Rarity and I faced one another, completely flummoxed by the story being put forth. Then the fashionista began to glance around at her friends, her brows creased helplessly as she searched desperately for answers. “Why? Why are they saying this? Who would believe that I--er, the Dark Mistress would do such a thing?”

No one had an answer. The only response she got was Twilight, shaking her head and shrugging.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Fluttershy said, placing a hand on Rarity’s shoulder. “Why would they want to make you look bad?”

Rarity simply shook her head, looking even more defeated than she did before hearing Aria’s story.

“I dunno,” Sunset said, standing next to me with her arms folded. “They’ve been playing this same crap on a loop ever since it happened. I have no clue why they’re blaming it on the Mistress.”

As they talked, a dubious frown had grown on my face as I watched the TV, noticing the unfamiliar anchors and set. I pointed at the TV. “What channel is this? This isn’t Canterlot news.”

“It’s channel four--Big City News,” Sunset replied. “She literally just said that.”

“Well, I wasn’t really paying attention to what channel it was, Sunny; sue me!” I drew a breath, scratching my ear as I looked at the screen again. “Why are we watching this channel instead of the local news anyway?”

Sunset shrugged. “Canterlot News wasn’t talking about it.”

I faced Sunset. “What, the fire?”

“Yup,” she replied. “They haven’t said a peep about it all day.”

Folding my arms, I left one hand free to rub my chin thoughtfully as I watched the screen again. “Huh…”

“Yeah. It’s fucking bizarre,” Sunset agreed. “That’s why we had to go to this channel… because we literally had to search for coverage of it.”

I glanced at the red-head to say something, but I stopped when I noticed her gazing amorously with those big, turquoise eyes and sucking on her bottom lip. I looked down at the zipper of her jeans and then back at her face. “It’s starting, isn’t it?”

Sunset stared for a moment, and then she cleared her throat and gave her head a little shake. “Yeah, it’s fine, though. I’ll be fine.”

“Hey, guys! Listen,” Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, waving everybody’s conversations down as she faced the TV, standing front and center. “Hey, SHUT UP!” she shouted, when Pinkie Pie failed to comply.

Everyone then brought their attention to the TV.

”After hours of investigation,” the male anchor was saying, “we are told that new evidence in the Canterlot fire has been released. Security footage from the site of the blaze, showing plain as day who was behind starting the heartbreaking fire--confirming initial suspicions.”

Everyone present glanced around at one another, confused, but saying nothing before returning out attention to the screen.

”Now, this footage is being released exclusively on Channel Four. For anyone who was in doubt of their supposed saviour committing an act as heinous as this, well… I am sorry, but the evidence doesn’t lie. Ladies and gentlemen, the Dark Mistress is NO saviour.”

The entire room was silent as the screen changed to the familiar grainy blue-tone camera footage that we saw on the app many times, showing the front of the boutique from the street light post.

It was the same footage we’d watched earlier.

The orange flicker was visible through the front windows, growing silently yet menacingly. I watched the corner of the building from behind which Aria was about to emerge, utterly confused as to how or why they would place the blame on the Dark Mistress. I found myself begrudgingly looking forward to seeing the anchors stumble frantically over their words after having this footage blow their narrative wide open.

That didn’t happen, however. A figure came around that corner, as expected, but it wasn’t Aria.

It was the Dark Mistress. She darted out from behind the building and sprinted down the sidewalk, exactly as Aria did, clad in that black, skin-tight outfit, mask covering her face, hair tied back.

You could hear a pin drop in Sunset’s apartment; not a breath was taken as each one of us gaped at the screen in disbelief. All we could do was watch helplessly as the footage was replayed at half speed, freezing in place when the Mistress was halfway across the shot so that everyone watching could have a good look at her.

Her reputation was being shattered right before our eyes.

As the image shrunk back in the top right of the screen to reveal the anchorman’s face as he continued to drone on about vigilantism, each of us slowly turned to face one another and then quickly drew our phones, opened the app and re-watched the footage to make sure our minds weren’t playing tricks on us. Sure enough, on the app, the footage showed Aria.

Rarity and Aria were the only ones that still hadn’t moved--the siren because she didn’t have the app, and Rarity because she was, quite frankly, in shock.

Rainbow Dash looked up from her phone to scowl at the TV, raising a hand at it. “The fuck is this shit!?”

“It ain’t the same!” Applejack said, looking rather perturbed as she faced the rest of us, pointing down at her phone screen. “I don’t git it!”

“It’s CGI!” Pinkie shouted from the back of the group, prompting us to groan and turn to face her. “What? How else would you explain it!? Think about it; you guys don’t really think Peter Cushing was in ‘Rogue One,’ do you?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Hm…” Twilight rubbed her chin as she studied the footage another time. “Actually,” she said, raising a finger, “Pinkie Pie might have a point. I mean, they’ve been recreating dead and de-aging elderly actors in cinema for years now. The example Pinkie gave, although well done, still didn’t look quite real, but that was nearly a decade ago. The technology has come a long way since then; in fact, even more recently, there were a series of animations of the ‘Mona Lisa’ portrait created by Samsung, through the use of artificial intelligence. You would be shocked by how real it actually looks.”

The lavender girl turned her phone around after doing a quick search on her browser, showing Dash and AJ the animation.

“Oh god… that’s friggin creepy!” Dash grimaced, to which Applejack seemed to agree.

“Yer right though, Twilight,” the farm girl said. “It’s purty convicin, ain’t it.”

“It wouldn’t have been difficult for the station to obtain this footage with a simple phone call to the city, and I’d say it’s well within the realm of possibility that they’ve altered the footage to show Rarity instead of Aria--which is exactly what it looks like they’ve done.”

I glanced at Sunset while this was happening, watching her stare at the TV with a hand covering her mouth. “Sunny,” I said, prompting her to look at me. “Canterlot News isn’t talking about this. Why?”

She paused for a moment and then shrugged.

“There’s gotta be a reason. This whole thing is fishy as hell,” I said, gesturing to the TV. “What channel is this again? Big City News? This might be a dumb question, but I assume they’re located in the big city, right?”

“That’s right,” Twilight replied, having overheard the question. “The station is just a few blocks from the university. In fact, the school offers a communications course where students can job shadow at the station; it’s a deal the school has with the network.”

I sighed and rubbed my brow. “OK, so… does it strike anyone as odd that the only station talking about the fire is the one that just happens to be located in the same city as the Ministry? Not to mention the fact that they’re saying things that happen to be extremely damaging to us.”

Sunset rubbed her chin thoughtfully, eyes narrowed. After a few seconds, she froze and then looked at me again, her eyes widening. “Shit… it’s him.”

“Um, who?” Fluttershy asked, joining the growing conversation.

“Father Tirek,” Sunset replied. “He’s behind this. He’s gotta be.” She turned to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You remember when I read Hopper’s mind, and I said that he’s got tons of people bought out, like cops, politicians, contractors?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Well, the other thing he’s got influence in is the media,” she continued, “but I didn’t mention it before cuz I didn’t understand the significance of it. But now…” --she shook her head slowly-- “now it makes perfect sense. He uses them to control public awareness; that’s why you never see stories about drug trafficking on the news, despite how bad it’s been in recent years.”

“Ok, but why is the local news not saying anything about it?” I asked, to which Twilight spoke up.

“I’m pretty sure both stations are owned by the same parent company, which would mean that Big City News would have influence over local station. Now, whether Canterlot News was told to be quiet about it, or if they opted to keep quiet rather than report the lie is unclear; either way, I have serious doubts that we’re gonna see the local news airing the correct information.”

I folded my arms and sighed, watching the news anchors blather on. “So he’s been paying the news off to cover his own ass… and now he’s using it to throw shade at us, trying to turn the public against us.”

“That’s fucking dirty, man!” Dash growled, clenching her fists. “That’s like a double-whammy: first he has the boutique burnt down, then he uses it to ruin our reputation? Ohhh, this guy’s going down hard!”

For the first time since the footage was aired, Rarity managed to peel her eyes from the TV to look over at Aria, her brows furrowed with suspicion. “Wait a minute,” she said in a flat tone. “I thought you said Father Tirek told you to let yourself be caught on footage so that we would think you started the fire, not so that he could use it to destroy our image on the news!”

Aria, looking rather nervous, shook her head. “I… that is what he said! He never said anything about using the footage for this.”

“She’s telling the truth, Rare,” Sunset interjected, having already read the siren’s mind. “There was no reason for him to tell her that; quite frankly, from his point of view it was none of her business.”

“Hmph!” Rarity folded her arms and faced the TV again, her eyes filling with moisture. “It’s like… it’s like my whole world is being brought down,” she said, her voice shaky, cracking.

“Oh, Rare,” Fluttershy said, wrapping the fashionista in a tight hug. “Please don’t be sad. We’ll figure this out; we always do.”

“Fluttershy’s right, sugarcube,” Applejack, said, standing beside the pair. “We can do this; ya can’t go and give up now.”

“Perhaps…” Rarity sobbed, struggling to keep her composure. “Perhaps, now that my reputation is ruined, I should just march into that church tomorrow morning and butcher him in front of everyone.”

“No! Rare, don’t do that,“ Sunset cut in. “That’ll ruin your image forever. This fake news we can disprove; we have the original footage, and we can pass it along to the Canterlot police, and we could put it on YouTube or whatever we can to spread it around.”

“But it’s too late for that, darling!” Rarity cried, breaking the hug with Fluttershy to gesture at the TV. “The damage as already been done; how many people have seen this? How many people now think the Dark Mistress is little more than a petty arsonist!?”

“I know it looks bad, Rarity,” Twilight said, raising her hands to calm the hysterical fashionista. “But like Sunset said, we can’t just go in and kill a minister in front of the people without exposing him first. Unfortunately though, we have no tangible evidence to give, only wild claims.”

I drew a deep breath and brought my hands up to rub my face, listening to the hopeless conversation taking place. Twilight was only half-right, however: we did have evidence, but so did Father Tirek. If we exposed him, what would stop him from exposing us?

Admittedly, the Ministry had dealt us a heavy blow; they’d created a compelling --albeit deceitful-- case against the Mistress, and put us in a position where we had little time to act. Even with Aria coming forward to help, we still needed to move quickly in order to rescue Adagio before they realised that Aria had defected--if they hadn’t already. We had to act tonight, but by the time we scrambled everything together and actually drove to the city to implement an incursion plan that was still incomplete, it would be almost morning.

Father Tirek was likely to have left the building by then, making his way to the church, where, although exposed, he would be immune to attack without justification.

Sighing, I turned slowly to watch the group talk back and forth, trying to maintain their frustration as they discussed their options. Eventually, my eyes landed on the siren, who was watching the TV, which was replaying the altered camera footage yet again, her hand raised to her chest, clutching the red pendant in her fist.

She must have noticed me watching her from her peripheries, because she turned to lock eyes with me, likely wondering what I was looking at.

I let my eyes drop to her hand, which was squeezing the jewel tightly, prompting her to look down at it as well. She opened her hand to cradle the red stone in her palm, and then she looked up at the TV to watch the image switch back to the reporters once again. Slowly her eyes crawled back onto me, her expression indicative of deep thought. Then her eyes widened slightly, and she held the pendant out, squeezing it in her hand before giving me a nod.

I narrowed my eyes when I saw this. What was she thinking about? Aria, like me, was centuries old, and anyone who’s lived that long, who’s had to fight plenty of battles and outwit plenty of foes, more than likely had an arsenal of tricks up her sleeve.

But what?

I faced the TV again, trying to see what she saw, trying to analyse the situation. What was the purpose of the phony report? To place the blame on the Dark Mistress for the fire. To generate outrage toward her. To add to the blow of losing her boutique, her livelihood, the thing she loved…

And then it hit me.

Eyes wide, I faced Aria again, which elicited a little smirk from her, followed by a second nod.

This time, I nodded back. Then I faced the rest of the group while drawing a breath to speak. “Ladies? I think the good reverend has just dug his own grave.”

Everyone stopped immediately and turned to face me.

After a pause, Rarity narrowed her mascara-smeared eyes and looked at me sideways. “What… do you mean, darling?”

I pointed at the TV. “That. He was trying to hit you where it hurt, but in doing so, doesn’t realise that he just fucked himself.”

“What are you suggesting?” Twilight asked.

“We go. Tonight.”

“Tonight?” Sunset replied, brows raised. “As in, right now?”

“We have no choice,” I shrugged. “If we don’t, then her sister” --I gestured to Aria-- “is gonna get a shadetree gastric bypass.”

“But… we haven’t finalised the plan,” Twilight protested. “There’s still a few things I have to figure out in terms of securi--“

“It’s gonna have to do,” I cut in. “There’s no time; plus with what we’ve learned from Aria, we should have enough inside information to pull this off.”

“Wait, is she coming too?” Dash asked.

“No, she’s gonna stay here--… actually, wait…” I paused for a moment, glancing at the siren. “We shouldn’t leave them here alone in town… not with Tirek’s men out looking for her.”

“Um, why don’t we stay with her?” Fluttershy asked, looking at me.

I nodded. “Yeah. Good idea, Flutters. You and I will stick with Aria, and in the meantime the rest of you’d better get ready; go over the plan a few more times, and then get yourselves on the highway. We need to be there by morning.”

“Wait, you’re not coming!?” Dash barked at me.

“We already got a full team, Rainbow! Y’already knew he wasn’t coming fer this one.” Applejack replied for me, tipping her hat back.

“Plus, I can’t help you guys if a rescue mission goes bad; it’ll be too late before I’ll be able to do anything,” I added.

“Exactly,” Applejack agreed. “We gotta get it right on our own--and we WILL get it right, won’t we?”

“OK OK, fine,” Dash said, folding her arms. “So how are we getting there, anyway? Can’t rent a van this late at night.”

Twilight raised a hand. “I rented a car to come down here, but I can’t fit everyone in it.”

“The rest of you can take an Uber,” I instructed. “I didn’t wanna use the rental van again anyway; don’t want them catching on to any of our patterns.” I turned to Rarity next, gently tugging the shoulder of her shirt between my thumb and finger. “I thought you promised to have a shower and change your clothes?”

She cocked a brow at me. “Pardon me, darling, but I was a bit distracted, if you do recall.”

Welp,” I said, pointing to Sunset’s bathroom. “You’d better get showered and dressed up, cuz you gotta go to church tomorrow.”

*****

Outside a pair of stainless steel elevator doors stood four dark figures. The dank smell and grainy walls of an underground parking garage surrounded them as they waited patiently, watching the light above the door move across the row of numbers.

Each of them wore a tight black outfit and mask of identical design, aside from having a different coloured pinstripe down each arm and a unique emblem on each of their thighs: a red and yellow sun, a trio of red apples, a rainbow-coloured lightning bolt coming out of a cloud, and three balloons--one yellow, two blue.

For them, a tinny voice rang into their heads from the earpieces they wore.

”OK, I’m on my way out. Cameras are online, you guys are good to go; I’ve commanded the elevator to come and pick you guys up.”

Knight Mare glanced up at the numbers. “We see it. Thanks… uh, you.”

”Uh… thanks. Sorry, Twilight replied. ”Actually, you know what? I need a name for my persona and I still can’t think of one, so… to heck with it, I’m just gonna go with Midnight Sparkle.”

After a short pause, the group of masked women began shaking their heads in protest.

“Aw, no… come on, sugarcube,” Alphajack pleaded. “Ya can’t use that.”

”Why not?”

“Because, Twilight! Don’t you remember what that name symbolizes?” said the girl with the rainbow hair that was gelled up into a spiky mohawk, prompting Knight Mare to spin around to shush her.

“Shh, hey! No names!”

Dash slapped a hand over her mouth. “Shit! Sorry.”

”It’s OK,” Midnight said over the earpiece. ”What I had back then was a magic-induced form of D.I.D. --or dissociative identity disorder-- which meant that my other personality, Midnight Sparkle, was constantly trying to regain control. Now, with the immortality, I am free of the condition, as it was a mental disorder, which we no longer suffer from. Trust me, guys; I have done extensive study on this in private, trying to trigger the real Midnight Sparkle, and I am glad to report that all attempts have failed.”

The group stared at each other for a moment, unsure of how to follow up on that.

“I like caaaandy,” the girl with the bulging, pink cleavage and massive, curly ponytail finally said.

“Ugh…” Knight Mare rubbed her brow--or the mask that covered it, rather. “Alright, fine. Midnight Sparkle it is.”

“Yeah, if you’re down, then I’m down,” Dash said. “Hey, what do you think of the name I came up with for me?”

”I do, actually. I like it a lot.”

“Me too,” Knight Mare agreed, turning around to give her much shorter friend a nod. “Black Prism… it’s got a great ring to it.”

“I know, right!?” Black Prism screeched with excitement. “It’s like, the awesomest superhero name EVER!”

“Second awesomest,“ Knight Mare corrected, before turning a bit further to point at Pinkie. “And you still need to think of a name, by the way.”

Pinkie shrugged, confused. “I already did!”

Knight Mare shook her head. “I already told you, you can’t use Fandango. OR Slam Jam.”

“Aww!” Pinkie folded her arms across that bulging bust. “OK… how about Big Pink Boom?”

“No.”

“Magenta Ninja?”

“No.”

”Tits Magee.”

“You stay out of this,” Knight Mare barked.

“OK… how about… the Killer Covfefe? Sugar Shadows!?” Pinkie suggested, to which Knight Mare groaned and shook her head.

“Uuuggh! You--” She paused for a moment, however, staring at the concrete floor. “Actually…” she nodded, looking up at Pinkie. “Fine. Yeah. Go with Sugar Shadows.” Then she raised a finger suddenly. “But just for tonight; this is a tentative name only.”

“I kinda like it, actually,” Alphajack nodded, rubbing her chin.

”Me too!”

A smile crept across those pink lips. “And so it is,” Sugar Shadows said with a hint of dramatic flair as she slammed her fist into her palm. “Sugar Shadows, ready to whoop some ass!”

“Well I hope you’re ready, cuz the elevator’s almost here,” Knight Mare announced, facing the doors again.

”Oh! That reminds me, there are some weird things going on in this building. Lots of strong signals and some pretty hefty framework around some of the rooms, which means our signal will be spotty, depending on where you are, so we may lose comms from time to time, and your ability to see the security footage might come and go.”

“Noted,” Knight Mare said as the elevator let out a ding, which preceded the steel doors sliding open. She stepped inside, turned and faced her comrades, reaching out to hold the door button. “Ready; you guys coming or what?”

The other three stepped into the elevator, with Black Prism hanging back slightly.

“What’s yer problem?” Alphajack asked once she was inside and noticed her friend’s hesitation.

Black Prism sighed. “I still don’t get why you guys won’t let me use the laneway down here to go into my super speed mode; like, I could literally just walk in with everybody’ll be stuck in place, so I could just grab Adagio and get out!”

Knight Mare scrunched her lips. “Won’t it kill her to move her that fast?”

Back Prism paused, mouth open. “Uh… yeah. I guess. Well I could just take everyone out on the way in and then drop back into normal speed when I get to her; then we just walk out, right?”

”Um, you’re forgetting that there are several security doors between your current position and where they’re keeping Adagio. Sunset is gonna have to use the app to decode the locks in order to get through, so you’re not going to be able to just ‘walk in.’ Sunset needs to her job before any of you will be able to continue. Even if YOU knew how to decode the doors, you can’t use your phone in your speed mode because the signal speed would be far too fast to communicate with their security locks, and if you drop out of speed mode to do it, I can’t guarantee there’ll be any hallways long enough to re-enter it. During my short time in here, I’ve already noticed several changes to the blueprints kept in the city records, so navigating this place may not go exactly as planned.”

Huffing, Black Prism looked up at the ceiling. “Ugh… you know, I could still switch to speed mode and just walk alongside you guys while Sunset opens the doors. Then once we find Adagio it’ll be a piece of cake for me to get to her in time.”

”Um… are you sure you want to do that?”

Prism folded her arms and shrugged. “I’ll wait,” she said smugly.

”Huh. OK then. Well, maybe you’d be interested to know that I’ve taken the liberty of figuring out your speed mode ratio compared to real time; during your first experience, you noted that to took Rarity nearly the entire time to blink. The average time it takes for a human eye to blink is three-hundredths of a second, so, given that, compared to the ten minute span it took for Rarity to blink, I was able to figure out your time’s ballpark speed. So… for the estimated twenty-five minutes or so it’ll take for Sunset to get you guys upstairs --assuming nothing goes wrong-- you’ll be ‘waiting’ in your speed mode for approximately thirty-five days, give or take.”

Black prism paused for a minute, her face going blank as the others watched from inside the elevator.

”Sun’s coming up, ladies. Time to make it happen.”

“He’s right,” Knight Mare said, nodding her head to motion Prism inside. “Let’s go.”

After one final stand of stubbornness, Black Prism groaned and rolled her eyes. “Ugh! Fine. Let’s fucking do this,” she grumbled as she stomped into the elevator and turned around.

Ding!

The doors slid shut, and Knight Mare pushed the button to send the elevator into motion.

“OK, we’re off, Midnight.”

No reply. The masked girls glanced quietly at one another.

“Hm. Guess we’re on our own for a bit,” the red-head muttered.

The anxiety-inducing statement was followed by the feel of heaviness in their guts as the lift accelerated upwards. After a few moments of tense silence, Alphajack turned to Sugar Shadows.

“Well? Whaddaya know fer sure?”

Sugar faced the tall blonde. “Huh? Lots of stuff.”

“She’s asking if you remember the plan,” Knight Mare said, watching the numbers above the door.

“Oh!” Sugar Shadows perked up. “I’m gonna get off on the eighteenth floor and create a diversion!”

“Why?”

“Because I’m good at creating diversions!”

Black Prism turned to face the pink girl. “Who’re you gonna be?”

Sugar looked confused. “What d’you mean?”

“Like, you know how you like to pretend to be characters from certain movies?”

Sugar Shadows brought her chin up, mouth open. “Ooohhhh… you want me to act like somebody?”

“Yeah!” Prism replied. “Like, go in there pretending to be Thanos or something.”

“Naw, Thanos is too serious,” Alphajack interjected. “It’s gotta be someone funnier… more wacky.”

“Give me a minute to think about it,” Sugar Shadows said, tapping her chin.

“So, while she creates a distraction, what do we do?” Knight Mare quizzed.

Prism and Alphajack turned to face her.

“We go on up ta the twenny-fourth floor and get off there,” Alphajack replied. “This is the cargo elevator, so it should drop us in a purty quiet spot, and we’ll make our way ta the room where they’re keepin Adagio while they’re distracted by Pink--… uh, Sugar Shadow.”

“Right,” Knight Mare nodded.

Ding!

The girls looked up to see the number ‘18’ lit up.

“This is it,” Prism said, facing the pink girl. “You’re up, Sugar.”

Sugar Shadows glanced back, sneering. “Sugar? J’you wanna see some sugar? I got more fuckin sugar than j’you can do in a hundred fuckin j’years!” she said as she stepped past prism to exit the elevator once the doors had opened.

Prism stared open-mouthed at the response, watching her friend disembark. “Hey… did you pick a character? Who is it!?”

Sugar stopped and turned to face her friends, her upper lip snarled slightly as she glanced at her friends one at a time, watching them stare back in anticipation.

“Who’re ya s’posed ta be, sugarcube?”

Sugar nodded, her head bobbing somewhat arrogantly. “Antonio… Mon-TANA!”

Ding!

As the elevator doors closed, Black Prism’s eyes lit up and she threw her fists into the air. “YES!” she shouted, her voice muffled slightly by the closing doors