"I think that's Limestone's friends arriving." Gesturing to where Derpy and Flash were waiting with their cars, Spicy drew everyone's attention to a pair of black SUVs that were pulling up, escorted by a pair of police cars. "Should we be worried about Thunderbolt and Sonata?"

Shining Armor climbed out of the back of the car behind his boss. If he could have, he would have face-palmed at the sight before him. "Sir, when you called me in, did you know it was my little sister involved?"

"I had an inkling. The grunt who phoned it said something about sirens, and your sister's friends were caught up dealing with them last time. Game face, but if you need to give her a hug, you have my permission." Raven reached up and pulled her battered old cap on, then started walking toward the group of teens.

Raven Inkwell had started as merely a clerk in the marines, but had quickly raised through the ranks to general, and when tapped to head up a major city's magic investigations taskforce, had jumped at the chance. Now she was walking into the backyard of some rich lot to find out what an army grunt had called in.

Of course, Raven had been briefed on the sirens before. They were a low-grade threat and hadn't caused much more than an evening of paperwork. The last time they'd been dealt with, it had involved a concert, and looking at the setup before her, Raven could imagine that a similar thing had happened again.

Marching past a gray-skinned girl and orange-skinned boy with wings, Raven could see who she needed to contact. "Corporal Limestone Pie! Report, soldier!"

Limestone's eyes flicked toward the woman approaching her. A tailored but loose-fit black suit covered what was otherwise a stocky frame, but it was the tone of voice and the way she walked that screamed brass to Limestone. If the hat was authentic, and Limestone had no reason to doubt it was, then four stars was enough to confirm that Limestone was now gifted with a surfeit of rank above her. "Sir! Forgive me for not saluting, but I have a pair of type D prisoners here, and I'm not about to give either the chance to try some funny shit.

"When I arrived on the scene, the yellow one was a thirty-foot-long flying serpent, and the other seemed to have one of the civvies under her control. The civilians here, including one former type D, helped subdue them and depower them. Being a brave but not entirely stupid ground pounder, I knew when it was time to pull my head out of my ass and take control.

"There was a civilian report that they escorted a group of victims of the type Ds here out of the house, and there may be bodies." The moment she said the last word, Limestone watched Raven's eyes harden.

"Good work, corporal. Armor!" Raven eyed the two sirens before turning to see if Shining was done with his sister yet. It was a mild surprise to see who he was talking to was a little, crystalline unicorn.

Not daring to take her attention off the two sirens, Limestone did flick her eyes up long enough to confirm that Shining Armor was the Armor in question. Under her breath, she muttered, "Now all we need is a flyboy."

"Keep an eye on things out here with Corporal Pie here. If either of the hostile type Ds try anything, shoot them. Try and get all these civvies away." Raven hated what she was forced to do now. "Officer Shield? Please accompany me into the house."

Shining watched the general draw a service pistol from a hidden shoulder holster and approach the house with one of the police officers in tow. "You got them covered, soldier?" When he looked up at Limestone, he was relieved to see all her attention was on the two sirens.

"I have them under control. If either opens their mouth, we have sushi," Limestone said.

Sonata stared at the hard-faced woman currently holding a gun behind Aria and Adagio. She could remember the faces of ponies who would have wished she'd been down there with them. A hand on her shoulder broke her reverie, then one on the other shoulder, and finally both arms sliding forward to wrap her in a hug from behind. "Rarity, I—"

"There's a reason, Sonata, that you're not over there." Rarity rest her jaw on Sonata's shoulder and pressed her cheek against Sonata's neck. "You have a wonderful voice, but it's your heart that separates you."

Not fighting Rarity as she was forcibly turned away from Adagio and Aria, Sonata let out a sigh. "I still feel like I could have done more—back then."

Sunset Shimmer, hearing Sonata's words, stepped over to her side. "I saw what you did back then. You can't change that, Sonata, but you could change things today. You made a difference, and the good guys won because of it."

The sound of someone vomiting drew Shining's attention toward the mansion. His eyes narrowed on the form of the police officer that had escorted General Inkwell making a mess of the back steps of the house. "Hey, corporal, do you know why the cop would be spilling his lunch?"

"Fuck." Taking a step back, Limestone brought her pistol up—aimed at the back of Adagio's head—and rest her finger on the trigger-guard. "Probably a good sign, sir, that these two killed a bunch of civilians."

"Can all of you please move away?" Shining turned on the civilians, but there was only one he really didn't want to see what could happen next. His heart clenched at the thought of his Twily seeing this side of his work. "I'm not even going to ask why you have a dragon and a demon with you, just please move away and let us do our job."

Pony Pinkie looked at Limestone, then at the two sirens kneeling in front of her, and clenched her eyes closed. "No!"

"Pinkie?" Sunset asked.

"She's right." Human Pinkie (who was markedly more pony than Pony Pinkie) walked over to her twin and linked arms with her. "We defeated them, we're—"

"Why the hell are these civilians still here?" Raven Inkwell was too used to fighting to have succumbed to what the policeman had. She glared at the interdimensional-twins with every ounce of her years leading people into combat. "There's fifteen people dead in there won't get to see how nobly you stand up for those monsters' rights. I've been cutting you kids slack because you've done nothing but help deal with threats, but don't get in the way when there's a pair of killers to be dealt with."

"K-Killers?" Pony Pinkie turned to look at Adagio and Aria. She remembered hearing from her human counterpart about the fight with the sirens, and from Twilight about how dangerous they were. Recently she'd had to contend with meanies in her own world who wanted to do those kinds of things. With a heavy sigh, she felt her hair wilt as she turned to look away from them.

"What if," Human Pinkie said, "They promised to be good, like Sonata? What if they wanted to be good?"

"Far's Ah'm concerned, they blew their chances when they shanghaied me. Ah coulda forgiven 'em if they'd just asked fer help. C'mon, darlins, we don't gotta be responsible fer this no more. Let this 'ere lady do her job." Applejack held out her hand to Human Pinkie.

Reaching a hand out to Applejack, Human Pinkie took one last look at the two sirens behind her. "It still doesn't feel right."

"None'a it feels right, sugarcube. Ah got no idea what they done to me, but Ah can see what they were workin' up to. Messin' with my head, killin' all them—they don't think of us as human. We're just pets and pests t' them."

Human Pinkie let herself be led away. In her heart she still felt a little conflicting knot—the feeling that she could have helped more—but she trusted her friends, and right now her friends were telling her she was being a silly-head about it. "Alright. But I want ice-cream."

"Pinkie," Sunset said, "I'll get you all the ice-cream you can eat. C'mon."

"This place is really cozy." Spicy Hot was relaxed on the floor with his wing around Rainbow Dash's back while they both leaned back against Thunderbolt. "Cozier with all the friends here."

"Having second thoughts about staying in your apartment?" Rainbow asked.

"I got really used to having her living with me. She has—I don't know what it was, but Sonata just makes you smile. Knowing that she can be this amazing despite starting as something worse gives me more hope for humanity, you know?"

Thunderbolt lifted his head and turned, resting it on Spicy's lap. He was bigger now. Longer neck, bigger body, and he was sure he was bigger in two other important places. "She's stronger than she seems."

Rainbow reached a hand over and rubbed Thunderbolt's cheek—that this put her hand practically right over Spicy's crotch was a bonus. "Sonata?"

"Yeah." Thunderbolt closed his eyes to enjoy the closeness of those he valued most. "She didn't have to fight. From what you said, she wasn't even supposed to get involved. Strong—powerful—but in ways that have nothing to do with muscle and bone. Strong of heart and strong in her head." Thunderbolt pursed his lips and blew a little trickle of smokeless fire out. "Powerful."

"You wanna bang her." Spicy leaned across and kissed Rainbow, then arched his back and kissed Thunderbolt on the top of his head. "If she were a guy, I'd probably want to as well. She's a switch, you know."

"There's more to it than just switch," Rainbow Dash said. "She lets a little of her full self peek out when she takes control. It's pretty amazing."

Spicy let out a dreamy sigh. "You're tempting me, but she still has two boobs too many."

"Hey! I have boobs too."

"Have you looked lately? Gloriously flat and firm." Spicy leaned across a bit further and kissed Rainbow's shirt right where the middle of her cleavage would have been had she had breasts. "And look at me? Totally buff bat! Did you see me out there? Applejack didn't stand a chance." Spicy titled his head up and looked at Applejack (now fully clothed). "No offense."

"None taken, sugarcube. I'll be honest right here, I'm thankful fer what ya did. Some of it's coming back in flashes. Ah can't believe she made me try t' kill ya." The one thing Applejack was thankful for was that whatever Aria had done didn't stick around in her head after that song. She looked over at Sonata and couldn't stop herself from smiling just a little. "So what's gonna happen now?"

"I'll get a call from the general when the all clear is given. Either way, you handled that pretty well." Shining Armor sat beside his sister, unable to stop looking at her. Everything had changed, and another threat had come, but he hadn't been there when his sister needed him. "You should have called me earlier, Twilight."

"We. Didn't. Know." Twilight loved her brother to bits, but this overprotectiveness was starting to wear at her nerves. Pointing at Applejack with her hoof, Twilight turned to look up at Shining. "We only realized Applejack was missing today. We had a meeting to work out what to do about it, then called Derpy and Flash for help."

"You should have—" Halting at the glare his little sister gave him, Shining sighed. "Look, you beat them—yay—but you could have been badly hurt or even killed."

"And if we hadn't stopped them, no one could have. I'm not sure if you noticed, but they were mind-controlling everyone they ran into—even Applejack—and they weren't going to stop. Did you even hear the crazy Adagio was shouting?" Twilight slid off the couch and glared at her brother. "By the time you turned up, Limestone had already helped."

Thunderbolt cracked an eye open just in time to watch Twilight walk over to him, circle around to the side not being used as a couch, and lay down (though the last bit he could only feel, not see). Carefully, he lifted the wing up on that side and wrapped it over Twilight's back and pulled her a little closer.

There was something about all these girls that resonated for Thunderbolt. He could feel the good they had within them, and though part of him wanted to ask every single one if they'd like to fuck, he was content with the partners he had. Twilight needed something more than sex would solve—she needed a friend. "He's trying to protect you."

Shining Armor stood up and walked out of the room. Part of him wanted to get upset with Twilight, but the other part was starting to see that she had dependable friends. Walking through the house to the back door, he slid it open and stepped into the evening air. "I'm an idiot."

Author's Notes:

Limestone: Do you think you can make any charges stick with these two literally alien monster from another dimension?

"So not my problem. Remember, I'm just here to kick ass and—" Limestone closed her mouth, a big grin stretching it. "I think you get my point. There's brass here now, so my job is to do what I'm told and not think too much doing it."

---

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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