Sunset had exited her car and the rest of the group followed. Eager to see what awaited them inside the very unimpressive looking warehouse. Sunset tapped a button on a keypad next to a garage door and entered a PIN number. After a few seconds, the door opened allowing room for the car. She came back around to the driver’s door and got back in. Without much effort, she pulled the car into the tiny garage which Moondancer noted had a tank of gas, a battery charger, and a few other various tools for car maintenance inside, most of which she wasn’t familiar with. Once the car was inside, Sunset turned it off and exited, pressing another button on the keypad to close the door. It shut securely and Sunset nodded before turning back to the group instructing them to follow her to a nearby door.

The door to the facility looked to be made of solid steel and probably was incredibly heavy. There were no windows, just a slat that looked like it opened from the inside. Looking over at Moondancer, Sunset gesture for her to come closer. The girl pointed to herself and Sunset nodded to confirm she did indeed mean her.

With a shrug, Moondancer came up to the door, which she noticed had another keypad. Sunset grinned and pointed to it as she spoke quietly. “You’ll need to remember this possibly, so the combination is 44352617, understand?”

“How will I-“ Moondancer began but Sunset cut her off.

“Just remember the math. Every two numbers add up to eight starting from four, understand? Four plus four is eight, three plus five is eight, two plus six is eight and one plus seven is eight, understand?” Sunset explained.

Moondancer nodded, confident that she could remember such simple math, though she would likely write the numbers down somewhere just to be on the safe side, it never hurt to be extra prepared.

Sunset punched in the combination and the door unlocked, allowing the group to enter into a narrow hallway with another steel door on the other side. To pass the door, Sunset reached into her pocket, producing her wallet. Withdrawing a key card, she inserted it into a nearby slot causing a light to turn green. Once it had, she removed the card and handed it to Moondancer who took it carefully.

“You’ll need that to get past this door and access all the computers and pretty much everything else in here. There is a spare one in the storage area in the deposit box. The combination to that is just one, three, four,” Sunset stated.

“Which also coincidentally adds up to eight, right?” Moondancer grinned, starting to understand the method to Sunset’s madness.

Sunset turned back to her with a smirk. “Very good, you’re clever.”

“Perhaps just good at noticing patterns is all.” Moondancer pressed he glasses up her face.

“Nonetheless, you’re the right girl for the job.” Sunset nodded.

Upon passing this new door, the group found themselves in a facility that made all of them look in awe. On one side of the room facing the east wall was a few expensive looking computers with several monitors hooked up to them, a laptop or two as well. The chair in front of them looked as though it was designed for maximum comfort.

On the opposite side of the room were two doors that appeared to lead to more rooms in the building.

There was a bed, a treadmill, a weight set, and just about anything that a person would need to live in this place as if it were an apartment.

Sunset turned around to face the group and locked her eyes on Moondancer with a grin. “Welcome to your home away from home.”

“Where did this place come from?” Moondancer blinked as she peered around the room.

“I bought it in cash some time ago in my more paranoid days. I figured it didn’t hurt to have a few hideouts that Adagio didn’t know about. This place has pretty much everything you’ll need to stay here, let me give you the tour.” She wagged her finger gesturing for Moondancer to follow, which she did.

Sunset first pointed to the computers in the room. “State of the art, naturally. They should be more than enough to handle the workload you’re throwing at them, and this place has fiber optic, so the connection won’t be an issue, but do be smart about what you post on the internet.”

Moondancer made a mental note to herself to set up a VPN to make herself appear in London to keep the lie she told her mother consistent. She also would need to remember to spoof her phone to do the same when she called her or anyone else for that matter.

Sunset pointed to one of the doors from before. “That one is a shower and bathroom, There’s quite a few bottles of soap, shampoo, and whatnot in the storage closet in there. Should be enough to last for a decade, though hopefully, it won’t come to that...”

Moondancer blinked, it hadn’t occurred to her that there was even a possibility that this endeavor could go on for a decade. She prayed it did not.

“The other one is a pantry and kitchen. Lots of dry food, MREs, you name it. Pretty much anything with a long shelf life is in there, though I will admit they aren’t exactly first choice meals, but you’ll have to make due.” Sunset frowned, remembering the taste of some of those foods herself. “I apologize that most of it is vegan, that’s just my thing, but there are a few meat products in there because I knew that in dire times I might not be able to afford to be picky.”

Moondancer took mental note of this, and submitted herself to potentially being forced to eat vegan for the foreseeable future; not something she was particularly looking forward to.

“I assume this place has plumbing too?” Moondancer asked.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, and years worth of coffee. Perfect for a code monkey like you.”

Moondancer blushed but nodded as she ran her hand along the chair that was seated in front of the desk.

“Whoa!” Sonata pointed.

The entire group looked to the back of the room tucked into a corner and there was the marble statue base from the school which formerly held a horse atop of it. Twilight was the first to approach and place a hand on it, feeling the ripples of the portal as she did. “So this is where you transported it then?”

“Yeah, I figured this way the chances of anyone stumbling upon it on accident or trying to go through it to follow us were low...” Sunset explained.

“A wise decision, but this also means that your wife can’t follow you as well, doesn’t it?” Twilight raised a brow.

Sunset grinned. “That’s a bonus. She won’t be able to find it here, and it’s better that way.”

The Princess once again felt compelled to apologize for the situation she had forced Sunset into, but no words came out of her mouth. Instead, she just stared and left Sunset to her thoughts.

Looking back at Moondancer, Sunset placed a hand on her shoulder. “There’s one last fairly important thing, Moondancer...”

“What is it?” Moondancer asked curiously.

Sunset sighed and stepped past her, opening a drawer in the desk where she retrieved an object that Moondancer had seen before. Sunset held it briefly before placing it in Moondancer’s hand, wrapping her fingers around it. Just holding the steel handle with its wood finish gave the girl chills. She felt more and more uncomfortable with every second that passed.

The item was fairly familiar to the other girls in the room who had come to know how human weaponry operated.

Moondancer didn’t know much about guns, but she did know that what she was currently holding was a pistol. Gulping she looked up at Sunset with confused and anxious eyes.

Sunset gripped the girl’s shoulder tighter as she leaned in. “There is a chance we won’t succeed, Moondancer. A chance that Serenade beats us all and possibly even finds the portal which she can use to get to this world... If that happens... It will be the end of both worlds.”

The bookworm stayed quiet.

“I can’t be certain this gun will even work on her, but there’s a chance it could take her by surprise maybe; either way, if anyone comes through that portal that isn’t us... Shoot them. I don’t care who they are, don’t even give them a chance to explain themselves, you can’t take any chances.” Sunset squeezed her shoulder firmly.

Moondancer looked down at the gun. Painful memories of almost shooting Adagio stung in her mind. “You told me not to be a killer... You stopped me from killing Adagio...”

Sunset shook her head. “This is different. Serenade is nothing like her sister, she will massacre this entire planet and feel nothing.”

Twilight chimed in to back up Sunset’s argument. “I have seen it first hand, Serenade will often kill just for the fun of doing it. I have spoken directly to Adagio, and I can confirm beyond any reasonable doubt the two are nothing alike. Serenade kills without hesitation, she will destroy anyone in her way without a second thought. She must be stopped at all costs.”

“But...” Moondancer choked on the words before Sunset grabbed her other shoulder and looked her directly in the eyes.

“At all costs, Moondancer. If Serenade or anyone that isn’t us comes through that portal, you have to promise me that you’ll shoot them, okay?” Sunset demanded.

Staring into the vibrant eyes of the redhead for a few seconds, Moondancer eventually nodded slowly. “I will.”

Sunset smiled and released the girl’s shoulders. “Let’s pray it doesn’t come to that though. I’m going to try everything in my power to keep that from happening.”

“Fair enough,” Moondancer responded.

Pointing at Twilight, Sunset began an inquiry. “Princess, how long did you say you could keep the portal open again?”

Twilight rubbed her neck. “About a month or so. Provided after we go through, Moondancer is the only one that uses it from then on. Once it closes though, it’ll remain that way until I get my magic back. I’ll have a small amount left, but not enough to open the portal.”

“That gives her about a month to think of what she can build to help us out. Fortunately, plenty of tools are here in this place which she can transport to Equestria to help her do that.” Sunset gestured to the facility around them.

“Sounds good.” Moondancer nodded with a smile, feeling a bit more reassured to know that Sunset had confidence in her.

“What exactly is she building though?” Aria asked, finally ringing in her thoughts.

The entire group found themselves looking at Moondancer after that question which made the woman shrug. “I guess whatever comes to mind after I assess everything. I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all we can ask of you.” Sunset winked.

Moondancer waved her hand. “I have the easy part, building the gear. You guys have the hard part, fighting Serenade.”

“We’re all in this together,” Sunset reminded.

Moondancer realized she was still holding the gun, so she decided to set it back down in the drawer it came out of, and carefully closed it as if she were trying to avoid waking someone up in the middle of the night. She shuddered at the thought of ever being forced to use it, but she understood and acknowledged Sunset’s concerns. If the situation called for it, she hoped she had the will to use it and not hesitate. If she hesitated, she would likely end up dead, and she needed to remind herself that.

The entire group fell silent for a few moments before Princess Twilight spoke up. “I guess that’s everything.”

“Seems that way.” Sunset nodded.

Another long pause filled the air.

“Let’s not waste any time then, we should get right to work,” Twilight insisted.

Looking back at Moondancer, Sunset shot her a concerned expression. “Is that okay, Moondancer?”

Moondancer forced a smile and nodded. “No time like the present, right?”

Sunset chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” The redhead turned back to the group and cracked her knuckles. “Time to go to work.”

It had been some time since the group had gone through the portal to Equestria, and with the assistance of some laptops, analysis equipment, and the knowledge of Equestria provided by Princess Twilight Sparkle, Moondancer was making serious headway with her projects. Thanks to what she had learned, she understood that magic could be amplified using technology if she understood how. It only took eight days of research before Moondancer had figured out the secret and began to make the designs for the first major breakthrough she would need to get the theoretical ball rolling.

Scribbling with a pencil gripped between the cleft of her hoof, Moondancer had started getting the hang of how ponies did virtually everything with their hooves. A mess of notes was jotted down on a crude drawing that she was sketching on some parchment. She never was a terrific artist, but she was able to get her point across.

Princess Twilight peered over the girl’s shoulder and tilted her head to try and make out what she was creating.

Noticing the royal mare’s presence, Moondancer beamed with excitement. “I finally figured it out! Using the property of Magic Magnitude, I have discovered the secret to-“

“Amplify magic’s power by drawing from alternate energy sources,” Twilight finished her sentence as her mouth formed a perfect “o” as she looked in awe.

Moondancer nodded giddily. “Precisely! So I can create a magic conversion engine, do some testing, and then I can focus on modularizing it so I can get it down to about one-eighth scale. From there I can create a power cell system to run it, likely being fueled by solar energy, but I worry the charge will be far too slow to be practical...”

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “Out of curiosity, could you possibly design it to utilize ether energy?”

“Ether energy?” Moondancer blinked and adjusted her large glasses. “I don’t follow.”

Twilight sat down, realizing it may be a good time for another lesson in how magic worked in Equestria. “Ether energy is sort of like a lingering effect of magic when it’s used. Whenever a pony uses some form of magic or energy there is sort of a trail of particles left behind. It’s weak and faint, so we mostly only use it to help track magic, but in theory, a machine like yours may possibly be able to harvest it.”

“It sounds like it would be a pretty low yield...” Moondancer frowned.

“Yes, however, with Serenade using her power, there is likely tons of dark ether energy, which is far more potent,” Twilight pointed out.

Moondancer smacked her hooves together in triumph. “And if I combine that with solar charging, that should be more than enough! It’s genius; using Serenade’s own power against her!”

“A little irony is always good in a fight.” Twilight smiled.

“In this case, Serenade would not expect such a strategy so we’d be getting the drop on her,” Moondancer stated.

Twilight grinned and placed a hoof on the table to look at Moondancer’s schematics. “This looks fairly complicated... What are you intending to use all of these for? Is it necessary to modularize all of them?” Her eyes flipped back and forth between the various designs in front of her, slowly making sense of all of them. It was clear that everything that Moondancer was making was being pushed to one centralized purpose, but Twilight hadn’t figured out what that was yet.

Moondancer winked at the Princess. “It’s all going to make sense soon enough. If I can build it all in time, we should be in a good position to take full advantage of it all when I head back to the human world.”

Sonata leaned forward in awe as she decided to poke her nose in their direction, examining the blueprints that Moondancer had crafted. She “oooo’ed” and “awwwwed” with interest before looking up at Moondancer with her big raspberry eyes. Admittedly, Moondancer found all of the girls rather adorable in their pony forms. They were almost like plushies to her, but Sonata seemed extra adorable due to her personality.

After the initial awkwardness of being forced to deal with a siren that worked with the same siren that murdered Shimmer, Moondancer somehow found herself seeing the other sides of Sonata and Aria. Sides that she never thought she’d ever see.

Aria, of course, was always standoffish, but it was clear that under her tough surface, she cared about Sonata. She tried to put on a tough face, but small cracks in her fortitude allowed for the group to get to see that there was a genuinely sweet side to her, it was just one that she kept under wraps and refused to be picked on about. They all made sure never to draw attention to it when Aria did come out of her shell.

She had talked briefly about her past in that she never really fit in with most sirens, but she mostly had stuck with Adagio because Sonata had so much faith in her. It was sad to think in a way that Sonata had put so much blind faith in Adagio only to be disappointed after possibly centuries of loyalty. For that fact, Moondancer felt bad for Sonata.

Sonata, however, was a different story. She was obviously a whimsical girl, who for the first major portion of her life lived as a pony in disguise, singing and dancing only for fun at first, feeding only when she needed to in secret. In the beginning, she always vowed only to take a small amount of energy from several ponies so that she never truly drained anyone of too much, or caused too much trouble, but an incident that got out of control had forced her and Aria together.

From then on, Aria had convinced her that they needed to take more than just the bare minimum to survive so that they would be strong enough to fend off attackers should they be discovered.

Adagio didn’t come into their story until way later, but the only one who seemed to know too much about her was Twilight. If the other two sirens knew anything, their lips were sealed, and unfortunately, so were Twilight’s. Moondancer had asked about her relationship with Shimmer numerous times already and what Twilight knew about it. Every time though, Twilight would just shake her head and give a very odd smile telling Moondancer that the matter is not hers to divulge. It frustrated Moondancer, but she wasn’t in a position to start demanding answers about a creature from another world, from one of the rulers of said world; she wasn’t that arrogant.

Over the past few days, Sonata had become increasingly interested in the science behind what Moondancer was doing, and found herself sniffing around to get an understanding of what was happening.

“This looks super cool! What does it do, Moondancer!?” Sonata asked her giddiness not really dying down.

Rolling her eyes, but smiling, Moondancer happily answered. “That one is actually an ethereal projector that I am working on. In theory, it should be able to manifest magic energy into physical objects. If I can make it work, it should have many purposes.”

“You can do that!?” Sonata blinked in astonishment, her mouth agape.

Moondancer adjusted her glasses and shrugged. “It’s only in theory. I need to test it, and Sunset needs to volunteer her magic for said purpose, but I think overall, it’s very possible.”

“Wow, you’re super smart, Moondancer!” Sonata praised.

The young nerd rubbed her neck and looked away bashfully. “I guess so... Anyone can become smart though, it’s not tremendously hard. I just studied a lot is all.”

“I didn’t learn to even read until I was like... eighty.” Sonata frowned.

“That sounds like you had a lot of other things going on...” Moondancer said almost in silence.

Sonata shrugged. “I’ve never really been good at learning. Then again, I’ve never had a teacher either...”

Moondancer stepped toward her with a smile. “If you’d like, I can teach you as much as I can about what I’m doing before I leave?”

“You’d do that!?” Sonata bounced in place.

Moondancer nodded. “Absolutely, I mean you’re in this to help us, so I suppose it makes sense to show you how all of this works.”

Sonata gleamed with excitement at the prospect. Moondancer never really took her for a science-focused person, and she didn’t seem that particularly intelligent either, but there was passion within her.

Twilight noticed the two and smiled before deciding to make an excuse to leave them be. “I better go check on Sunset.” She giggled.

Within seconds, the mare left the two alone so that Moondancer could explain various parts of her designs and notes to Sonata. The process was lengthy and took a lot of “breaking down” ideas into basics so that the girl could understand them (albeit, Moondancer was not convinced she understood them still), but the passion in Sonata’s voice as she inquired never seemed to fade. Before the two knew it, hours had passed and Moondancer found herself sitting at a table sharing a coffee with the siren.

Sonata was a talker, but more of a listener than one would realize. She’d offer her input, but she seemed to enjoy being told stories more than telling them.

“So, that’s more or less how Shimmer and I met, and in turn that sort of lead to Sunset and I coming to know each other... I guess you could call it pure luck, really...” Moondancer rubbed her neck, now that she thought about it if Shimmer and Sunset had not gone to that store where she happened to be at that exact moment, a lot of things may have played out differently, and she likely wouldn’t even be sitting in Equestria at that moment conversing with Sonata.

“You sound like you really cared about her from all your stories.” Sonata gave a genuine smile.

“That’s an understatement, she was everything to me, I miss her a lot, but I’ve accepted she isn’t coming back,” Moondancer responded.

The mare leaned back in her seat, a small smile on her face as she remembered her time with her girlfriend. She hadn’t dated since then, but mostly because her life distracted her from romance. She knew that Shimmer would have wanted her to move on, but Moondancer just wasn’t that interested in dating again. Realistically, she wasn’t interested in the first place, but Shimmer had managed to worm her way into the role of girlfriend through sheer determination.

“I really wish there was something I could have done to stop Adagio. Sadly, she would never listen to me; in her mind, I was the one who was given commands to follow, not the other way around.” Sonata frowned.

Moondancer felt a bit guilty for judging her so harshly before now. “It’s not your fault, I mean you said it yourself: if you had known Adagio was going to take things so far, you’d have bailed on her much quicker.”

Sonata perked up at the news that she was finally being believed. She nodded and found the words to continue the conversation. “Yes, though I wish I could have been there to stop her... She almost never listened to me, but maybe that one time she would have...”

Moondancer shook her head and reached across the table, placing a hoof on top of Sonata’s hoof. “You can’t spend your life thinking about what you could have done. Reality is what is, not what could have been. Trust me on this, I’ve had to learn that one the hard way.”

“Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.” Sonata found herself smiling once again, much to Moondancer’s delight.

Moondancer allowed the quiet to press on for a few more seconds before popping a question she had hoped to have anyone give her some information about. “So what is The deal with Adagio and Shimmer? Like you had to have known something about that?”

Sonata’s smile faded quickly as the subject. “Adagio didn’t tell us much of anything, she kept her relationship with Shimmer pretty private, we didn’t even know about it until way later. If you knew Adagio like we did, you’d have known that she is far from an open book.”

“How could you even call someone like that a friend?” Moondancer questioned.

Sonata’s frown only grew worse as she sighed and shook her head. “I doubt she considered us friends if anything she always gave the impression she was annoyed with us. Adagio wasn’t the kind of siren to open up and tell you what was bothering her, but I could always tell she was hurting inside. We only knew a little about her life before us, but it wasn’t good stuff. Her mother was murdered when she was young.”

“Murdered? That happens here in Equestria? Obviously excluding now with Serenade, but I wasn’t aware such crimes happen here?” Moondancer blinked.

Sonata shrugged. “Murder happens anywhere, but it is extremely uncommon in Equestria, but back then it was pretty common for creatures that ponies didn’t understand to be burned alive. Adagio saw them burn her mother and scream she was a monster...”

“Was her sister with her?” Moondancer raised a brow.

Again, Sonata shrugged. “She didn’t talk about her much, but I’d imagine so.”

“That’s probably where her resentment for mortals began,” Moondancer pointed out after recalling all that Twilight had told them about Serenade.

“It’s likely, though a lot of sirens resent them, I’ve just never seen one as bad as Serenade,” Sonata admitted.

Moondancer bit her lip but then decided to ask something that had been on her mind, risking a possibly awkward conversation. “What about you, Sonata? How do you feel about mortals?”

As expected, the siren was taken by surprise. She blinked a few times before looking up in thought, rubbing her chin with her hoof. Her bright eyes returned to Moondancer after some soul searching with an answer. “I don’t know really. It’s true that mortals have given me a hard life for a long time, but I can’t bring myself to hate them, not like Serenade does anyway. I’ve seen there is good in mortals, but that sadly we do still have to approach them with caution.”

“Impressive, what made you come to that conclusion?” Moondancer asked.

“To be honest... Shimmer.” Sonata frowned.

That wasn’t the answer she was expecting.

“How so?” Moondancer blinked.

Sonata sighed. “Even if I didn’t get to talk to her ever, I did at one point get a look at some photos that Adagio and she took together, they seemed so... Happy. I’ve never seen Adagio smile like that in my entire time knowing her. I think she really did fall in love with her, as crazy as that sounds. If a mortal can make someone like Adagio smile... They can’t all be bad, right?”

Moondancer found herself smiling at that statement. Her own memories of Shimmer started to fill her mind. “The reality is, Shimmer wasn’t perfect, but she did bring a lot of joy to those around her. I’ve been suspecting that the feelings between the two of them were legitimate. I didn’t want to believe it at first, probably because I was jealous, but there’s no denying it, Shimmer felt strongly about Adagio and Adagio felt strongly about her.”

“And that’s what ultimately was the problem...” Sonata frowned.

“Problem?” Moondancer leaned in with interest.

Instead of answering her inquiry though, Sonata just shook her head. “It’s not something I should talk about. Sorry, but Aria is right, some things should be kept a secret until the time is right.”

“Well, that’s fair, you’ve opened up a lot to me already,” Moondancer reassured her.

Sonata blinked. “Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I? It’s weird, I don’t really ever talk about this kind of stuff with anyone.”

“Dare I say... We’re becoming friends?” Moondancer joked.

“I guess Princess Twilight really can make friends out of anyone, can’t she? Brings us here, and friendship is already happening.” Sonata giggled.

It was quite odd, but Moondancer didn’t mind it. A part of her was relieved; relieved that she didn’t have to carry the burden of hatred for this siren. Any doubt she had could be cleared up: Sonata had nothing to do with Shimmer’s death, and given the opportunity, she would have prevented it. It also confirmed another important detail; not all sirens thought the same.

Serenade’s murderous rage was clearly not a universal trait among their kind.

“Maybe we should be thanking Shimmer? It’s because of her that we’re all meeting,” Moondancer suggested.

It was true too, at the end of the day, she felt it was strange how everything connected to Shimmer in a way. If she recounted the facts that she had learned over the years, everything connected to Sunset and Shimmer. Had Sunset not showed up in the human world, Shimmer’s parents would not have died from that magic accident she told Moondancer about.

It also would have meant that the sirens would have never had the Battle of the Bands, or been defeated. Adagio would have never met Shimmer and if that happened Shimmer would be alive. If Shimmer was alive, then Adagio wouldn’t be dead, and Serenade likely wouldn’t be destroying Equestria right now.

Everything boiled down to Shimmer and Sunset. When Moondancer thought about that, she could get a feeling of what Sunset must have felt like at that moment. The entire world had changed, everything was crumbling beneath her, all because of the shadow she cast over the world, but more importantly the shadow she had cast over Shimmer.

It was like a never-ending domino effect, no matter how many things Sunset managed to fix, new problems appeared. She had stopped Shimmer’s killer but now that killer’s sister was out to exact revenge. Who was to say it would even stop with Serenade?

“Shimmer sounds like a great person...” Sonata interrupted Moondancer’s inner thoughts, bringing her back to earth.

“Yeah, she was.” Moondancer nodded.

“Sounds like you loved her,” Sonata stated.

“I did, if I could, I’d have traded places with her. She deserved to live, she was smart, funny, pretty... Everything I’m not. I was still amazed that a great girl like her would give me the time of day...” Moondancer wiped at her eye.

Sonata chuckled. “You’re definitely plenty smart, and humor and beauty are all in the eyes of the beholder. Still, you’re lucky, you got to feel what it was like to be in love and be loved back. We sirens only get to be adored from afar.”

“Sounds like a lonely existence,” Moondancer replied.

Sonata shrugged and looked up in thought, clearly much on her mind. “I suppose so, the reality is that we sirens don’t even know why we exist, maybe it’s just to suffer through the feeling of always being close to love, but never being able to experience it. Our powers let us make people adore us, but their feelings aren’t real and we know it. Maybe we’re just some strange joke by the universe.”

“I’m sure there is a reason.” Moondancer shook her head.

Sonata chuckled and smiled at the girl. “Either way, you’re lucky that you got to feel what it’s like to love and be loved. It’s something I’m a little envious of Adagio for, before she went, she got to love, and part of me wonders if that feeling is worth all she went through.”

Moondancer bit her lip but nodded before releasing it. “Definitely. I can say without a doubt that if Adagio really did feel what it was like to love someone, then I can sort of see how losing that love for whatever reason drove her mad. I can only imagine what it must be like to go hundreds if not thousands of years without love, and then when you finally find it, to lose it.”

Sonata remained quiet but kept a look that suggested she was in deep thought. Something was clearly on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to say, but there was something there preventing her from doing so. Moondancer wanted nothing more than to ask the girl to speak her mind, to tell her to air her concerns, but somehow the words didn’t come out, instead, she just sat there in silence with the siren.

After a few moments passed, Sonata closed her eyes and spoke. “Moondancer...”

“Yeah?” The bespectacled mare asked, adjusting said glasses.

“During this whole thing... You may learn a lot of things about sirens that mortals don’t get to know usually, maybe even things that we sirens don’t know about ourselves. There are secrets that are kept among our kind...” Sonata spoke seriously.

“What of it?” Moondancer tilted her head.

Opening her eyes, Sonata smiled at her. “I’m trusting you not to use said secrets to do anything bad, okay?”

“Anything... Bad?” Moondancer was confused, but she was certain that Sonata had no plans to ease her confusion. Instead, the siren just shook her head and giggled.

“I’m counting on you, Moondancer.”

Sitting across from a small child in glasses was an esteemed professor of Yulington University, a prestigious school for the rich, privileged and gifted. Doctor Information Well, or Doctor Well as he had been accustomed to handled many of the enrollment matters and assisted with placement exams for students applying for the university out of high school.

On top of this, however, he often did consultant work, and this was one of those jobs. He had been commissioned by the Shimmer family to conduct a test at their home, and thus why he was now sitting across from a small child no older than three who was sipping on a juice box looking up at him from behind her glasses and messy hair.

He sighed and shook his head. He was dreadful with children, but the pay was right, so he was willing to deal with it.

Sorting through his notes, he looked over the documents he had brought and cleared his throat, figuring it was best to begin right away.

He ran a hand through his old graying hair, and then another across his goatee before placing that hand upon the table and taking up a pen in the other. His eyes focused on the little girl in front of him who just looked at him with an expression that puzzled him. He could not tell if the girl was curious or just neutral; she had an excellent poker face for a child.

“Can you please tell me your name?” He began.

The girl stopped sipping from her juice box and replied, “Horizon Shimmer.”

“And how old are you, Miss Shimmer?”

The girl took a hand off of her fruity beverage and held up three fingers.

The good doctor jotted down her answers thus far and felt nothing was out of the ordinary thus far.

“How do you spell the word ‘cat’, Horizon?” He asked.

“C-A-T.” Horizon shrugged.

It wasn’t common for three-year-olds to know how to spell, but some had been being taught how at a young age, that was likely the scenario, but to be sure, he felt it necessary to probe a bit more.

“How do you spell your name?”

“H-O-R-I-Z-O-N,” She plainly said.

Another note got scribbled down with a nod. “And can you tell me what your name means?”

“Horizon is what you see when you look into the distance and see where the sky and ground appear to connect, but they’re not really connecting, it’s kind of caused by the earth being round...” Horizon answered.

He blinked, becoming somewhat impressed by her knowledge. “What’s four plus four?”

“Eight,” the little girl shrugged.

“What’s two times three?” He squinted.

“Six.”

These kinds of questions went on for a few more minutes. He was far from asking things such as explaining what is the atomic number of hydrogen, but definitely was asking questions that a three-year-old wouldn’t typically know, and to his surprise, Horizon continued to nail every question.

Normally he would feel the need to conduct a full test and not just one of these preliminary interviews, but after about eight minutes of conversing with the little girl, he felt confident in making a judgment. He nodded and came to a stand, smiling toward the child. “You’ve been an excellent help, Horizon. Please stay here while I go have a chat with Miss Twilight, alright?”

Horizon once again shrugged, appearing indifferent toward it all. The good doctor chuckled and found himself admiring how agreeable the girl was.

After leaving the room, he found his way a few rooms over where Twilight was awaiting his return. Upon seeing him, she looked down at her phone to check the time, certain it had not been an hour yet.

Looking up at him, she gave worried eyes. “Did you forget something, Doctor?”

He shook his head an smiled. “I am ready to give you my assessment.”

“How were you able to conduct an hour-long test in less than ten minutes?” She squinted.

Doctor Well laughed and approached the woman sitting at a table and pulled out some of his notes, placing them on the table in front of Twilight, causing the sapphire blue-haired woman to look down at them.

Wasting no time, he decided to explain them to her. “Ordinarily I only do the pre-interview to determine if I’m even wasting my time doing the test, but honestly, after speaking with her, a test isn’t even necessary.”

“That bad?” Twilight’s brow rose.

He laughed once more. “On the contrary, congratulations, your daughter is gifted.”

“Great,” Twilight replied, the aura of sarcasm in her voice was evident.

The Doctor raised a brow and found himself laughing once more. “Usually people are a bit more excited to hear this kind of news. Your daughter will be able to attend any university she desires, and will likely get there on a full scholarship.”

Twilight shook her head. “That’s all great, but I know what gifted means to the rest of the world: socially awkward. I’m dealing with a lot right now, such as my wife just up and disappearing on me, and now I have a daughter that will likely need special care...”

He blinked, never really thinking about the situation that way. He couldn’t deny there was truth to what she said though, most of the gifted children he had run into often dealt with a lot of bullying and found it difficult to relate to others. “That is... Well, I suppose I see your point there...”

“Just another challenge on my already long list that I have to deal with...” Twilight frowned.

He nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. “Well, rest assured the payoffs for these things tends to be worth it. Horizon will be the kind of girl who will make you proud, I’m certain of that.”

Twilight smiled and nodded, though the smile was somewhat forced. “Thank you, doctor.”

He patted the shoulder before releasing her. “Don’t mention it, now if you excuse me, I have much work that I need to get back to. Do enjoy your time with your daughter though, Miss.”

As he left, Twilight turned her head back to the stairwell where Horizon was likely waiting in the room where they had left her. “Sunset... If only you could see the mess you left me...”

Moondancer sighed as she sat down at the round table where Sunset, Twilight, Sonata, and Aria eagerly awaited her briefing. All of them were curious about what she had discovered in her time in Equestria, and more importantly what kind of tools they could look forward to using in their conflict against Serenade.

The young scientist looked over her clipboard and then over the two blankets in the back of the room, concealing her creations until the big unveiling.

The four girls in front of her lean in with interest, Sunset especially, who had the most faith in Moondancer’s abilities.

Clearing her throat, Moondancer nodded. Public speaking was hardly her strong suit.

“It’s been a busy few weeks...” Moondancer began.

“You can say that again...” Aria rolled her eyes. Never in her life had she worked so hard as she had in the past few weeks.

Moondancer just nodded in acknowledgment. “I’d like to thank everyone here for their help, I’ve managed to discover a lot in a short time and build a lot in a short time. This has certainly been a significant test of my own capabilities.”

“I knew you were up to the challenge.” Sunset winked.

The confidence that Sunset had forced the girl to smile.

“Yes, well now is the time to go over what I have learned. Magic is a very interesting force that at first I was confident would be difficult to break down to a scientific level, but thanks to the Princess, I have learned that is not the case. The energy works in a similar way to electricity, but with some minor property differences. I won’t get into the technical jargon, as much as I’m sure the scientists of the room would love me to...” Her glare was focused on Twilight and Sunset.

Clearing her throat once more, she continued. “However, I have learned a great deal on amplifying its power and power storing. Both of these will be essential for what we will need as at this moment Sunset is more or less our only source of this energy. The biggest challenge I had to overcome was how to use as little as possible, amplify its effects, and store it for later use. No small order, I assure you.”

Sunset frowned, fearing that bad news was coming.

Moondancer smirked, however, and that caused Sunset’s brow to raise. “However, I was up to the challenge...”

Moondancer pulled one of the blankets down off of a table behind her, revealing a myriad of gadgets she had built. The first she lifted in her hoof and displayed to the group. It was a small cylinder with a few rings around it, appearing to have some kind of glass tube in the center as a base. There was a set of prongs on one side that appeared to be used to connect to something.

Proudly holding the device, Moondancer held it closer to the four girls. “This is Equestria’s very first magitech battery. This little guy can store about eight kilo sparks of magic energy in it.”

Twilight blinked, incredibly impressed by how much could fit in such a tiny battery.

“Eight kilo sparks!? Is that even possible!?” Twilight exclaimed.

“How much is a kilo spark?” Sonata tilted her head, feeling like she was missing something. Aria admittedly didn’t understand either but didn’t want to speak up.

Sunset leaned back in her chair and crossed her hooves. “Magic is measured in sparks. A kilo spark is a thousand sparks. That kind of power would be enough to say... Power an entire house for a week or so? In a general sense, you could likely use it for basic spells like telekinesis for weeks on end without worrying about losing all of your charges, but higher powered spells like teleportation and combat magic would drain it a lot faster. It’s not an unlimited supply, but it’ll give us enough to work with.”

Moondancer pointed at Sunset and nodded. “Excellent explanation, Sunset. Yes, she is correct, for day to day spells, it will be sufficient, however conjuring combat magic will drain it much faster. As I said, even with this stuff on our side, we have to utilize our resources sparingly.”

“One problem though... I don’t exactly have a few hundred kilo sparks of magic in me to charge those things...” Sunset frowned.

Moondancer winked and set the battery down, picking up another device from the table. This one looked somewhat like a funnel with a series of cables hanging off of the other end. “That’s why I made this.”

“What is it?” Sunset blinked.

“A magic drainer. It’s designed to absorb magic from your body and move it into the batteries. It also has a magic amplifier in it that will increase the yield tenfold. In other words, it will put out ten times the magic that is put in. It’s a complicated process, but I won’t get into that. It can charge batteries in your sleep,” Moondancer lectured.

“That utilizes the dark ether energy I mentioned, doesn’t it?” Twilight asked.

Moondancer nodded. “Along with solar charging on the batteries themselves. That’s another thing I forgot to mention, all of the batteries will recharge on their own at a slow rate by converting solar energy into magic. Again, another really complicated process, but it turns out that such a thing is possible, the only drawback is that the conversion rate is very slow, but it should be used as a supplement to charging the standard way.”

“That’s pretty cool!” Sonata beamed.

“Yes, and as such these batteries can be used to power...” Moondancer lifted a blade mounted to a leather band. Quickly fastening it to her hoof, she took a battery and inserted it into a pendant on the table that she placed around her neck. Focusing the blade extended from a sheath as she pointed it at the table. “Stuff like these hoofblades. I also have headlights that can be used, and most importantly... These...”

Without wasting another second she picked up a set of bracelets and tossed one of each to Twilight, Sonata, and Aria who blinked as they looked at them, then back up at Moondancer trying to make sense of the black bands with glowing white lines on them. “What are they?” Twilight asked.

“Vital bands. I took the liberty of making each of you three one. These bands will allow me to monitor everyone’s vital signs and track where you are. It’ll make it easier to keep my eyes on what’s happening out here. They also can administer morphine if necessary, so think of them as a small first aid watch,” Moondancer explained.

After hearing the explanation all three girls quickly slipped them onto their front left hooves.

Sunset found herself looking down to her own bare hoof and then back up at Moondancer with a raised brow. “So I don’t get one?”

Moondancer shook her head. “You won’t need one, you’re going to be sporting the most advanced gadget of them all.”

“Which is?” Sunset blinked.

Pulling another sheet down, Moondancer stood proudly next to what appeared to be some kind of armored suit. The entire body was covered with metal plates, with some kind of leathery material between them for mobility. The head was sporting some kind of helmet that Sunset could not see through, due to the tinted black glass over the face. It glowed with some kind of red trimming and looked like something out of a science fiction film, yet it was standing there in front of her.

“What the hell is that?” Aria asked the question that the entire group was thinking as they stared in awe.

“This is the SD Magitech suit. This is actually the model two, the first one was an early prototype, but after many redesigns, I was able to come up with this.” She grinned, eager for the praise she was getting.

“What does it do?” Sonata asked, her mouth hanging open.

Grinning wider, Moondancer picked up a clipboard. “I’m glad you asked. The SD Magitech suit is designed for magic combat and day-to-day functions. With a built-in battery charger, the suit will amplify and store the user’s energy in reserves. Furthermore, it was designed with a tempered alloy that is easy on mobility, and incredibly resistant to dark magic.”

“In other words, Serenade can’t drain the pony wearing it?” Twilight asked.

Moondancer pointed to her with a smirk. “Precisely. In this suit, Sunset will be protected from Serenade’s power-draining abilities, provided she keeps the suit charged. Its shields do drain magic when they are used, but we’ll go over how all of this works at another time. The important thing to take away here is that this suit should give Sunset a huge advantage against Serenade. There’s no way that she is going to anticipate this coming onto the battlefield, and with its abilities, we stand a fair chance against her.”

“Incredible!” Twilight clapped her hooves together.

“Even with a fancy suit, that won’t be enough to defeat Serenade...” Sunset frowned.

Moondancer sighed and nodded in agreement. “Yes, it will still take some effort on your part, but the suit should be helpful.”

Sunset blinked and nodded. While the odds against them seemed high, at least with Moondancer’s gadgets on their side, they stood a fighting chance against a powerful creature such as Serenade.

“I guess we’ll get started then, won’t we?” Sunset grinned.

Moondancer smiled at her friend and nodded back. “Time to go to work.”

Sorry flat-earthers... Even Horizon knows the earth is round.

The psych of Moondancer was interesting to craft. She’s a troubled girl with a sense of duty that was inherited from Sunset. She’s come out of her shell quite a bit but she still has a bit of reserved nature to her. The more observant will notice she’s also rather gender neutral at times. She doesn’t seem to care how she’s viewed. This makes her ironically similar to Adagio in that regard.

She has only minor feminine touches to her, which appears to be the kind of girl that Shimmer was into. She’s lanky, flat chested and scrawny like Adagio, the only major difference is her personality and that Adagio is taller.

We can also discern that she has a small bit of obsessive compulsive disorder which materializes itself in the form of having organized chaos as her system of memory.

She was a fun character to craft and I’m glad that I found more use for her after Act II. Originally she was added to the story by suggestions from Applety. She never appeared in the original notes.