In a quiet corner of the cafeteria, where most students seemed to be giving a wide berth, sat three girls. Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. The Dazzlings, natives of the world of Equestria, had more-or-less taken up the role that Sunset Shimmer had experienced for the better part of the last year. They were outcasts, with the whole student body bearing great anger and mistrust of them because of their actions. To say that they looked miserable because of all this would have been a great understatement. They looked positively distraught, knowing full well that the power they once held in their hands was gone forever, and that they'd never have the victory they once fought so hard to gain.

All three of the girls were eating their meals, though Adagio and Aria seemed far less willing to do so as Sonata was. The blue-haired girl was practically wolfing her food down while the other two just stared at their plates and only occasionally took a bite. As this carried on for some time, Aria looked up at Sonata and frowned.

"How can you stand to eat that stuff?"

Sonata, oblivious to the anger in her companion's voice, smiled as she looked up at her.

"Because it's good!"

Aria scoffed at that, but her attention was then drawn to Adagio, who spoke up in a dour tone.

"As much as it pains me to admit, we should probably follow Sonata's example. We can't feed on hate anymore, so this...urgh...food is all we have."

The purple-haired girl threw down her fork and slumped down into her chair somewhat.

"I can't believe this! Stuck in a place that hates us. Can't feed like we used to. Can't make people do what we want. This sucks!

Adagio did her best to ignore her compatriot's whining as usual, as hard as it might have been, and instead carried on with her meal as best she could. Sonata meanwhile was looking to Aria with a somewhat confused look on her face.

"Well...it could be worse."

Aria raised an eyebrow at that.

"How could this POSSIBLY be worse?!"

Sonata smiled widely, not getting the aggressive undercurrent of her friend's words.

"At least we still have each other!"

Even Adagio couldn't ignore that statement, and both she and Aria looked directly at Sonata. They stared at her and the blissfully ignorant look on her face before simultaneously smacking their foreheads in frustration. Sonata meanwhile was tilting her head with confusion, wondering why her friends were behaving this way. It was a curiosity soon sated by Adagio's next words, which were dripping with frustration and anger.

"Sonata, as much as I hate to mimic Aria in these matters, you really are the worst!"

The blue Dazzling looked somewhat taken aback by her leader's words, almost as much as she was by the fact that Aria seemed to be agreeing with her for once, judging by her silent nodding. The girl looked down at her food, realising perhaps for the first time that her fellow Sirens were simply in no mood for cheering up, even though that's all she wanted to do for them right now. Sure, she said to herself, things were bad, but they weren't alone as long as they had each other. At least, that was what she kept telling herself. And yet, with all they'd gone through, it really did seem as though Aria and Adagio only ever wanted to drift away. It was, needless to say, something that depressed her a great deal.

The mood amongst the Dazzlings was, as one might expect, rather uncomfortable after this little exchange between it's members. It would have most likely continued this way for some time, had it not been for the sudden sound of someone clearing their throat. It was a sound that was easily recognised as one performing such an action not so much for the clearing, but to simply be noticed. Turning, the Dazzlings all looked upon the source of the sound, a boy their age, who now stood just a foot or two away from their table. He was standing silently, albeit with a somewhat nervous expression on his face, and just watching the three of them. Sonata looked at him with some confusion, Aria with disdain and Adagio simply with a raised eyebrow as she spoke.

"Can we help you?"

The boy remained silent, fiddling with his hands a little as he stood there, a clear sign of nerves. Eventually though he managed to get some words out.

"Um...hello. Erm...you probably don't know me. In fact I'm fairly certain you don't but..."

One look at the growing frustration and annoyance in Adagio's expression made it clear that he should speed things up a bit.

"Well, my name is Random Insert. But my friends just call me Randy for short."

Adagio turned away from him a little and looked back to her food before speaking to him again.

"In that case we'll just stick to Random Insert then."

Randy looked away from her briefly, clearly looking uncomfortable.

"Okay, awkward first introduction."

He then looked back to them, clearing his throat a second time before speaking, this time looking over to Sonata and walking a few steps in her direction.

"Actually...I was hoping to speak to you, Miss Sonata."

That seemed to catch everyone's attention, as not only did Sonata look at him with a surprised look in her face, but Adagio and Aria also looked at him, their own faces bearing looks of confusion. They glanced to each other, and while they said nothing, they were both thinking the same thing: Why would this guy want to talk to Sonata of all people? As they turned to look at him, they couldn't help but notice a slight shade of red emerging on his face. It was clearly a blush, and as he once again fumbled his words, his purpose here became clear to the two girls.

"Um...I was wondering...that is, if you're not doing anything, if you might like to...er...join me for a walk on the school grounds...maybe?"

Sonata stared at him with a somewhat blank expression on her face, as if this was the first time anyone had ever asked such a thing of her. Briefly, she cast a glance over to Adagio and Aria, where she noticed that her friends were becoming somewhat annoyed with this guy, as evidenced by Aria's words as she spoke up next.

"Are you seriously trying to ask out Sonata, of all people, out on a date?"

The blue girl's eyes widened and she looked up at Randy again, whose blush was becoming even more pronounced after Aria's outburst.

"Is that true?"

Randy opened his mouth a few times to answer her, but the words were struggling to come out. There was a worry in him at this point that his approaching her was a big mistake on his part, that she'd just say "no" and this whole thing would be a colossal error on his part. However, that wasn't what happened, as Sonata's face just broke out into a big smile as she clasped her hands together.

"Oh! That's so nice! Thank you!"

Randy, not quite believing what he'd heard, stood there with a blank stare on his face, not unlike what Sonata's was like a few moments ago, before shaking his head and speaking in a marginally more confident voice.

"I...yes! That is what I'm doing. Asking you out, I mean. A date is what I'm asking and what I'm asking is...that."

Sonata, having completely glossed over the fact that Randy had just made a display that would make even Pinkie Pie groan at how awkward it was, simply continued to smile at him, which the boy promptly returned. That smile faded soon afterwards however as Adagio soon spoke up.

"Wow...you have lousy taste in girls, boy."

Randy and Sonata turned to face her, with the latter looking more than a little insulted by that statement.

"Hey! He's trying to be nice here! He doesn't deserve that!"

Adagio scoffed just before Aria spoke up.

"Oh please! What he's just done is walk into a knife shop and picked out the dullest blade on the shelf."

The boy, watching all this, suddenly had a deep urge to try and back away before things got out of hand. And given what he'd heard these girls were capable of, he even started to fear for his own safety at this point. However, he was stopped from doing anything by Sonata, who promptly stood up from the table, her eyes still glaring angrily at the other two girls, before walking over to him and grabbing onto his arm tightly.

"Well if THAT'S how you're going to be today, then you can just finish you lunch without me!"

She then looked to Randy, her face filled with determination.

"Let's go, Roger!"

The boy looked at her with some hesitation.

"Erm...it's Randy."

Sonata, still keeping that same expression, simply nodded before starting to drag him away from the table.

"Yeah, that."

The other two Dazzlings merely kept their eyes on the two until they were too far away to see, before begrudgingly getting back to their meals. However, after sitting in silence for a minute or two, Aria, in a somewhat unexpected turn, turned to her leader and spoke in a somewhat hushed voice.

"We're going after her...right?"

Adagio looked to her with a frown.

"Of course!"

Meanwhile, Randy was being pulled a long at quite a pace by Sonata, who was still clearly angry at what her companions had said to her. As the two moved through the cafeteria, the boy began to notice all the surprised looks he was getting from the other students. Though he could not blame them, this WAS one of the Sirens he was with after all. Things thankfully became more familiar to him as he was eventually dragged past the table of the Rainbooms, where all six of the girls looked on with surprise as he passed them by, Sonata apparently oblivious to them. As he passed, he gave a weak smile and shrugged his shoulders, to which the Rainbooms gave him wide smiles and waved frantically in his direction, apparently wishing him luck by doing so. Once he and Sonata were out of earshot however, Rarity, still bearing her forced grin, leaned over to speak to Sunset.

"We're following him...right?"

Sunset, also grinning in a forced manner, answered her.

"Of course."