“Hi, you’ve reached Indigo Zap’s voicemail. Sorry I can’t get to you right now, please leave a message after the beep.” *Beep!*

“Well, I guess Indigo’s out of the picture.” Sunny Flare put her phone down and leaned back on her bed. “Where did she say she went again?”

“Docklin, I think,” was Lemon Zest’s reply. She had her headphones on, but Sunny suspected there was no music, since Lemon had been able to hear her question.

The remaining four Shadowbolts were gathered in Sunny Flare’s room. She had just finished explaining the plan, and while Sugarcoat looked as nonplussed as usual, Lemon was grinning like Christmas had come early, and Sour Sweet at least looked interested.

“Okay, I have a question though…” Sour Sweet raised a hand. “Why are we even doing this? What’s the point?”

“Like Sunny said,” Sugarcoat stood up from the chair and walked around the room. “There’s no information about Silver Rose’s past. And you girls have seen everything she can do. We believe there’s more to her than meets the eye and we want to find out more.”

“More than meets the eye?” Lemon Zest chuckled. “Who even says that anymore?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Sugarcoat pushed at her huge glasses. “What matters is we find out if Silver Rose is indeed who she says she is or if she’s some kind of witch.”

“Witch? Why would you even think she’s a witch?”

“She might’ve put some kind of spell on Sunny to make her go out with her. Sunny’s been masturbating to her every night. And they’ve even had sex before.”

“SUGARCOAT!” Sunny covered her face as turned a bright red. “You didn’t need to say it like that!”

The other two girls looked at each other with varying degrees of confusion, which then turned into surprise, and then into shock.

“You-you’re dating Silver Rose?” Lemon Zest pulled her earphones off. A first in a long time. “And you’ve had sex?! What? Really? You? Sunny Flare? With another girl?”

“I’m not sure that I needed to know that. At all.” Sour Sweet looked slightly disturbed.

“Don’t blame me! Blame Sugarcoat!” Sunny pulled at her mulberry hair and covered her eyes. “You didn’t need to put it so bluntly!”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” Sugarcoat replied, not remorseful in the slightest.

“I can’t believe it!” Lemon Zest shuffled closer to the embarrassed Shadowbolt. “How long have you been dating? What’s it like? And do you really masturbate every night?”

“Okay, okay, enough questions! Stop! We’re not here to talk about me, okay?” Sunny shoved her away and curled to her knees. “We’re here because we want to know if Silver Rose could possibly be a witch or something. So focus on that. Okay?”

“I just can’t believe you never told us, Sunny, that you were dating the daughter of Ebony Wings. The girl you tried to shame, of all people.” Sour Sweet folded her arms. “You should’ve told us. We’re your friends.”

“Why do you think she’s a witch, of all things?” Lemon pondered, slipping her headphones around her neck. “Maybe she’s just a really hot chick.”

“Don’t mention her being hot,” Sugarcoat said, looking at Sunny. “Not around her. She can’t control herself. She began touching herself yesterday while I was on the phone with her.”

At this point Lemon just fell over backwards onto the floor, howling with laughter. Sour Sweet still looked squicked out.

“Oh, man, if only Indigo was here!” Lemon Zest giggled from the floor. “She’d never let you live this down!”

“Stop! Stop it!” Sunny covered her ears. “See why I didn’t want to tell you girls? I knew this would happen!”

“Yeah well, you weren’t afraid to masturbate while I was on the phone with you,” Sugarcoat reminded.

Another bout of laughter came from Lemon.

“You’re not helping, Lemon!” Sunny groaned into her legs. “Why did I even ask you girls to come here…?”

“Okay, okay.” Sugarcoat raised a hand. “Enough. Let’s get serious, okay?”

“Yeah, Sunny needs our help. Though this doesn’t make her any less crazy.” Sour Sweet punched a hand into her palm. “I want to know just what Silver Rose is hiding. We should totally do this.”

“She’s still our friend right?” Lemon Zest righted herself and wiped the corner of her mouth, where she had began to drool from her laughter. “It’s not like we’re turning against her?”

“Nothing of that sort.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “We just want to investigate this further. And if she did cast a spell on Sunny, we want to know.”

Sunny rose back up from her knees and dusted her red skirt. “Y-Yeah. I want to know why I’m so crazy about her.”

“You know, I think Sunny’s so into her just because she is. I don’t think there’s any magical thing involved.” Sour Sweet plopped a pill in her mouth and drank it down with water. “Some people are like that, right? Anyway, here, I brought my binoculars.”

“But I’m not like that, Sour Sweet. I never was!” Sunny protested. “Domino dumped me because I wasn’t even remotely like that! I wanted to take things slow. I’ve never been this crazy for sex in my life!”

“Well, except now.” Sugarcoat looked unamused. “But forget it. Can we move on? Lemon, you have the van?”

“Yup! It’s out front.” She pointed out the window. “We’ll all just need to pile in and get ready for a stakeout! And I brought some steak. Cooked it beforehand too! They should be good for… another three hours or so.”

“You know how to cook steak?” Sunny looked at her. “Mrs. Full Pot never taught us steak.”

Lemon Zest shrugged and slipped her headphones back on. “I watched a video on Ewetube.”

“Right…” Sugarcoat cleared her throat and waved the binoculars around. “So, the plan? I suggest first spying on the house with these. Who knows? Perhaps we’ll see something strange.”

“Man, I wish we had a drone.” Sour Sweet flipped through some photos on her phone. “We’d be able to see so much more with one.”

“Higher risk if we get caught. It’ll be trespassing.”

“It makes more sense though.” Sour Sweet mumbled.

“We could get one online. Like, a quiet one,” Sunny suggested, bringing up drone stores on her phone. “We could find a really quiet one. A discreet one. So we can spy. We’re going to be there a few days, after all.”

Lemon Zest giggled and tapped her with a finger. “You’re just hoping you get to see a naked Silver Rose, right?”

Sunny blushed and gave her friend a slap on the arm. “That’s-that’s so not true! I don’t!”

“I think it’s a great idea for a drone. Perhaps we’ll see her casting a spell or something.” Sour Sweet smiled sweetly. “That’s the plan, after all. To see if she’s more than human?”

“Do you really believe she’s more than human?” Lemon Zest kicked her legs back and forth. “That would be so cool. After what we’ve seen at the Friendship Games though, she could be a werewolf or an alien for all I care. I’d believe it.”

“Ummm… right…” Sunny discreetly shifted herself away from Lemon by an inch. “So here, I’ve found a pretty good drone. It’s black and has a thin frame, so it’ll be harder to see from a distance. Even has a built-in zoom function for its camera. And it’s only six hundred dollars. It even comes with goggles that link directly to the camera’s feed. We’ll be able to see things as if we were there.”

“That’s pretty neat. We should buy it whether we’re spying or not.” Sour Sweet nodded. “Send an order in, Sunny.”

Sunny took an interest in the drone. At least it currently got her mind off of her friends finding out about her relationship with Silver. Paying a little extra for faster shipping, Sunny sent in her order and clicked her phone off.

“Done. So, are we ready to go for today?” The mulberry haired girl stood up and dusted her skirt. Today she had on a purple tank top that almost matched her eyeshadow colour.

“Someone’s excited.” Sour Sweet got off the chair and stretched her arms back. “But Sunny’s right. Let’s go. It beats sitting around and doing nothing.”

“Then to my van we go!” Lemon Zest swung the keys in her hands and made for the door.

“Anything yet?” Lemon Zest asked for the fifth time in two minutes.

“My answer’s the same, Lemon. No!” Sunny gritted her teeth as she kept her eyes on the binoculars.

Lemon had parked her green-painted van on the street that offered a good view of the Wings’ estate’s east side. The mansion lurked atop the hill like a crown on the head of a king, with its many windows closed but not shuttered. This side also had the fewest trees in the way, which made it the best spot to start spying. So far, however, they hadn’t seen much. Sunny passed the binoculars to Lemon and sat back in her seat, twiddling with the air conditioning.

Sour Sweet was in the back of the van going over Silver’s information that could be found online. There wasn’t much of it.

“What puzzles me is how little data there seems to be on Silver Rose. Moonglade has quite a sizeable file, but her twin sister? Close to nothing. Don’t you find that strange, Sour Sweet?”

“I don’t know, I never really thought about it,” Sour shrugged aggressively. “Unlike the rest of you, I don’t devote my life to movie stars. Or their offspring.”

Sugarcoat tapped away at her laptop. “I can count all the sites that have something to say about Silver Rose on both hands. By the way, Sunny, your photos are up here too.”

“Mine?”

“You know, the ones you took of Silver without her shorts on in PE class.”

Sunny’s face flushed a deep red. “Oh. Yeah. Those.” She squirmed in her seat. “I should probably apologize to her about that.”

“Wait, girls! I see something!” Lemon cried out.

“What? Where?”

Lemon pointed up at the mansion. A tiny figure was leaving the front door.

“Let me see!” Sunny bumped her out of the way and took the binoculars back.

To her disappointment, it was just an old man with long white hair, dressed in a suit. He went around the back and in no time, he was driving out the front gates in a car, turning down the road and heading down the street towards the city.

“Just some old geezer,” Sunny sighed. She had hoped for a chance to see Silver.

“So besides this guy, there’s been no activity whatsoever?” Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow and stuck a lollipop into her mouth. “What is really going on in there? I find it odd that a woman of such standing like Ebony Wings lives in such isolation. You’d think she would have parties every night for being such an acclaimed actress.”

“I don’t know,” Lemon said, taking a bite from a steak sandwich. “Maybe she’s just into the quiet life. I mean, she never talks about her private affairs, unlike a lot of other celebrities. Maybe she’s just a reserved woman who happens to be good at acting.”

“I never really thought much about that, but after reviewing Silver Rose’s lack of information…” Sugarcoat narrowed her eyes at the closing gates. “I’m not so sure now. Things aren’t adding up. They must be hiding something up there.”

“Hmm…” Sunny scanned the house through the binoculars, hoping to catch a glimpse of Silver with her pants down through one of the windows.

She remembered getting the chance to have a look at Silver’s private spot when they went to watch that movie with the screaming cowboy. It had been so pretty, even in the dark. She had even gotten the chance to touch it. Silver Rose’s pussy.

Just thinking about it made Sunny’s breathing more ragged and the zone between her legs more heated. Before she even knew it, she already had a hand under her skirt, probing around her panties.

“Don’t make me dump my water on you,” Sugarcoat said without looking up.

“Dump water?” Sour Sweet looked over from her phone. “Why on earth would you need to do… oh. Is she doing it? For real? I didn’t actually think you were serious.”

“Wait what?” Lemon glanced back into the van before peering out the window again. “There’s someone moving up on the second floor. Sunny, swing the binoculars over there.”

Sunny didn’t hear them. All three heads went over to her to see what was taking her attention. She was still looking through the binoculars, but the fingers under her skirt had peeled her panties aside and were in the process of running up and down her slit, the sound of her-

There was a sudden hiss and a rush of icy cold air over Sunny’s crotch and she yelped, almost falling out of the van as her hand caught on the door handle. Sugarcoat stood there, stooped over under the van’s roof with a miniature carbon dioxide fire extinguisher.

“Sh-sh-sh-Sugarcoat! Wha-what the hay?!” Sunny pulled at the hem of her skirt and pressed her legs together. It was really frosty down there now. Sunny almost couldn’t stand up. “Ar-are you trying to give away o-our po-po-position?!”

“Oh, like you’re in any position to talk,” Sugarcoat put the fire extinguisher down and crossed her arms.

“Wh-what? I was-I wasn’t doing anything!”

“Girls! Shuddup for a moment!” Lemon hissed. “Someone’s coming down the hill.”

“Suh-someone else?” Sunny shakily put the binoculars back to her face and peered out the window again.

This time, it was a young woman in an Eastern maid outfit. One of the staff of the estate no doubt.

“People actually dress like that?” Sour said incredulously. “I thought that was only in the cartoons.”

“I suppose if you’re rich enough, you can have what you like.” Sugarcoat watched the maid retrieve a stack of mail from the wall by the gates. “So we’ve not seen anyone else besides the staff. Maybe no one’s home?”

Lemon Zest took the binoculars back and swept them over the entire face of the house. “Wait, I see someone. First floor, second window from the left.”

“Wow, we’re suddenly see-seeing a lot of people…” Sunny squished her legs together, trying to warm herself up. “Wh-who is it?”

“Oh. It’s just those three girls who go to CHS. They look like they’re getting ready for a swim. Got towels and floaties.” Lemon tugged at her collar. The air conditioning in the van was trying its hardest, but the sun beating down on the van was slowly turning the inside into an oven. “Man, what I wouldn’t give for a bit of a swim myself.”

“I-Is Silver with them, b-by any chance?” Sunny placed one hand over her crotch, still trying to make it warmer.

“Eeenope,” Lemon reported. “”Just those three. Man, poofy hair over there is a real looker…”

It wasn’t long before the three girls went around the corner of the house and disappeared from sight.

“I guess the pool’s behind the house?” Sour Sweet sighed. “Once again, nothing to see. This is a waste of time. We should just come back when we get the drone.”

“I hate to say it, but there’s nothing more we can do unless we get closer. And that means waiting for that drone.” Sugarcoat retied her three ponytails and wiped sweat from her forehead. “I know there’s definitely more going on here. Especially Silver Rose. And if she’s more than human, perhaps her mother might be too. That would explain why Ebony Wings is so secretive.”

“Don’t forget her husband too.” Sour Sweet wagged a finger. “Poor Crescentlane just fell over and died one day, at least, that’s what the news said about him.”

“Yes, something fishy’s going on here…” Sugarcoat rubbed her chin and hummed. “We’ll need to have a closer look. But alas, it is not this day.”

Lemon sighed, fanning herself. “I’m finding it hard to argue, girls. Who wants to go get ice cream?”

“But we haven’t even been here an hour,” Sunny wheedled. Really, she just wanted a glimpse
of Silver. “Aren’t stakeouts supposed to be way longer than that?”

“If you’re a Navy Seal, maybe,” Lemon said, starting the van. “But we’re just a buncha high school girls roasting in a van on a hot day. I think we should come back later when we have better equipment. Hey, Sugarcoat, shoot me with that fire extinguisher, will you? I’m dying here.”