Here Comes the Sun

by Eyeswirl the Weirded

First published 12th of March, 2015

Story time with the Dazzlings!

In an effort to learn and use the Rainbooms' own tricks against them, the Dazzlings attend a party at Sunset Shimmer's urging. While they're there, they share tales of their exploits in this world up to and beyond the Battle of the Bands.

Chapter 1: Come Together

Sugarcube Corner, December 31st, 7:45p.m.

The bundled-up Dazzlings stood across the street from the bakery in the winter air, ready to begin their first plan since the Battle of the Bands. Adagio Dazzle grinned viciously. "This is it, girls, within that building waits the means by which we'll get back on our feet."

"We're already on our feet," replied Sonata Dusk, double-checking that they were all still standing up, "we've been on them for a while now."

Aria Blaze groaned, face-palming, "How many times have we explained the concept of metaphorical speech?"

"Two thousand seven hundred and eighty-three times?"

Aria's jaw dropped before she displayed a particularly emphatic scowl. "You don't remember what we say, but you remember things like that?!"

Sonata beamed. "I just pick a random number every time you ask."

Adagio silenced the pair with an arm motion. "Girls, focus!" She peered across the street into the dark windows of the shop. "Odd that the lights are out, are they planning to surprise us or-"

"Hey!"

The trio jumped in fright, whirling around to see Sunset Shimmer smiling sheepishly, waving one hand. "Haha, sorry about that. Glad I caught you guys, I might have made a little mistake when I said the party was at Sugarcube Corner."

Trying her best to look unfazed by Sunset's sudden appearance, Adagio crossed her arms. "I see. Where might the event actually be taking place?"

Sunset lowered her head slightly. "Rarity's place?"

Aria raised an annoyed eyebrow. "A little mistake? That's like nine blocks away!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I-" A frightening thought sprung up in Sunset's head. "Wait, why do you know where that is?"

Aria's mouth shut tightly as her eyes opened wide, as though she wished she could take back her last complaint.

Naturally, Sonata eliminated any chance of that before Adagio could smooth things over. "We know where you guys live, duh!"

Adagio had no words, only a soft, glove-padded facepalm.

There was a long, awkward silence before Sunset cleared her throat. "R-right, well, just checking." She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Maybe you can tell me where you live? Then we'd be even." In response to three mildly perplexed stares, she thumbed over her shoulder, speaking quickly. "Would you guys like to walk with me to the party anyway? We could talk a little more before it starts."

If what they just said is true, getting them to come around might be more important than ever!

The trio shared a short, surprised look. If they were still invited despite the relatively creepy detail that was just revealed, then the plan was still on! Adagio smiled. "Of course, lead the way."

Sunset nodded, turning away to begin the march to Rarity's house.

Does she know she still does the evil smirk thing? I hope that isn't a problem for the others...

Once they'd all gotten moving, she smiled at them over her shoulder. "So, once we get there, I was thinking it might help to break the ice if we shared a little about each other."

Aria and Sonata glanced affirmatively to each other, remembering Adagio's plan.

"We'll cooperate with whatever they say, it's the last thing they'd expect! Their guard down, we'll be able to observe them naturally so as to learn their ways and use them for ourselves!"

"Anything specific?" asked Adagio with her usual grin.

"Oh, nothing in particular," Sunset answered, trying to remember how she'd first introduced herself to the Rainbooms after the Fall Formal. They certainly knew a thing or two about her already, so things were a little rocky. "I guess... maybe just something standard, like your favorite food, hobbies, anything, even if it's something a little embarrassing." She smiled somewhat wryly. "You'd be amazed how much easier it is to get along with people in this world when they have something they can tease you about a little."

As she noticed the possibly-confused glances the Dazzlings were giving each other, Sunset did remember one detail; that her five newest friends had wanted to know a little more about the secret-unicorn-spellcaster that had 'gone undercover in their society' for so long. Applejack thwapping Rainbow on the back of the head while muttering about too many spy movies might've been the first thing the group ever did that made Sunset smile, if hesitantly. "People might ask something about you, actually. You were the ones who got them into a big, magical showdown, which might raise some questions around here." Or go worryingly ignored. Either was fine in the long-run, really. She smiled at them, like Rarity had for her when first asking her to tell them a little about Equestria. "So, if you're comfortable with that, feel free to share!"

Adagio nodded, her slightly sinister grin unchanged.

Free exchange of information? Perfect.

"We'll keep that in mind."

Badly hoping Adagio really did just always smile like that, Sunset decided to test the waters as they waited for a traffic light to change. "Why don't we give it a try now? Umm..." The first question she'd been asked seemed like as good a start as any. "What was it like when you first got here?"

Aria's raised eyebrow was almost audible in her voice. "Shouldn't you already know what that was like?"

Sunset chuckled. "Humor me."

"Very well," said Adagio as the light turned and they were able to safely continue, "we arrived roughly thirty years ago..."

Canterlot City, 198X

"Oof!"
"Ow!"
"Ack!"

The sirens landed in a heap on the grass, screaming in panic for the better part of their time spent untangling each other from the human pile and coming to grips with their new bodies. Walking proved a challenge for the first few minutes, most of all for their leader.

"By the abyssal trench," she cried, waving her upper limbs about in an attempt to stay upright, "what manner of appendages be these?!"

"Adagio," replied Aria, whose first experience with walking in heels was going a lot smoother, "how, pray tell, might we be expected to respond to thine inquiry? 'Tis as much a mystery to us as it is to thee what constitutes the laws of this realm!"

"Mine own concern," muttered Sonata, tugging on her ponytail, "be placed upon these extensions of our heads!"

Wait, did you guys really talk like that?

Why wouldn't we? It was how everyone spoke around the time we were banished.

Oh, right, you guys must have been pre-Nightmare Moon, at least.

Nightmare who?

Err, nothing, sorry to interrupt.

As I was saying...

Falling on her posterior (which was also unfamiliar in her anatomy) for the fourth time, Adagio let out a frustrated noise. "A reckoning of sundered skin and shattered bone, should ever I catch sight of that wizard again!" Briefly halting her efforts to walk, she looked around. Apart from her companions still shakily figuring out how upright movement was achieved in these bodies, the surrounding world was alien even by land-strider standards. "Aria, Sonata, thy stance comes easier than mine own?"

"Of course," whispered Aria with a smirk, "if thou art not a klutz."

"Once more, Aria?"

"I spoke not, Adagio."

"Hmph."

"'Tis not so taxing," offered Sonata, still wavering a bit, "once thou hast the hang of it!"

"Then scout," Adagio said, waving an arm to indicate the area, which they would later discover was a park, "take in this world and relay its sights to me!"

Aria crossed her arms unconsciously, it just having felt right. "And by what means dost thou plan to spend thy time 'til our return?"

Gritting her teeth, Adagio felt warmth in her face. "Mine time..." she indicated what she didn't know were her shoes, not her feet, "will be spent attempting to master these accursed land limbs!"

Aria and Sonata snickered at her distress, but set off as ordered, if with slow, careful steps. Not long after they were gone, Adagio found herself crawling on all fours (which was much easier!) to reach a nearby tree on which to lean for balance when she stood. "If I be not thrice-cursed," she muttered indignantly, practicing setting one foot before the other, "I shan't need to be carried for the whole of our stay here."

A little later that day, Sonata found herself watching in silence as a small, blue girl with similarly dark-blue hair and a hat made of folded paper acquired an ice cream cone. The girl accomplished this by standing before the vendor, holding her hands together timidly, and staring at the vendor with wide, watery eyes. The ice cream man eventually smiled and offered her a cone which she enjoyed heartily. That being the most noteworthy thing she'd seen since beginning the scouting operation, Sonata opted to head back to that grassy area and see if she could find Adagio. And Aria too, if she was still around somewhere.

Aria found Adagio leaning one arm against a tree, moving her feet almost at a normal pace. She gave her an amused grin. "Dost thou still struggle with thy clumsiness, Adagio?"

Adagio shot back with a glare before her mouth twisted into a smirk. "It pleases me so to see thee adapting well to thy new form. I trust it is relieving to no longer feel the scale rash upon thy-"

Aria blushed furiously, waving her arms in a silencing motion. "H-hold thy tongue!! 'Tis not thy place to-" In her frantic movements, Aria lost balance and fell over, Adagio cackling with satisfaction as Sonata approached.

"Hail, I return from meandering!"

Still chuckling, Adagio turned to her. "We have eyes, Sonata, that much was clear. What news have thee? Perhaps thou happened across a body of water? I could do with a soak."

Sonata paused, searching her recent memory. She pointed roughly in the direction she'd come from. "T'was a great, stone geyser spewing water over yonder, mayhap that would suffice?"

So we tried to flood the world.

W-WHAT?!

Yes, I know, but back then, we knew nothing about this realm. Magical stone structures that spewed infinite streams of water from apparently nowhere? Made sense at the time, different frame of reality, different rules. We thought the fountains were wards of some sort to prevent the seas overtaking the land. So, if we could damage one enough...?

You... would have drowned millions of people?

That wasn't the goal, we just wanted to establish a foothold here! It wouldn't have worked regardless, because a little while after we'd gotten the thing good and leaking, Aria decided to take a swim in an existing lake. When she came back...

"ADAGIO, SONATA," she cried, sopping wet as she stumble-ran to them, "WE CANNOT BREATHE IN THE WATER HERE!!"

"WHAT?!" the pair exclaimed in unison, turning to the broken fountain with wide-eyed horror. Putting a hand to her own neck, Adagio quickly summed up the situation. "I-it cannot be, our gills are misplaced! If this flow is not halted, we'll not be long for this world!"

Sonata looked particularly distressed. "'Twas quite short already!"

"Haste," cried Aria, "we must undo our damages upon yonder well! We must-"

The four girls could see Rarity's house not far from where they were, so Adagio opted to wrap up. "Well, from there we scrambled to find something to patch up the fountain with, to no real avail. Luckily, what I think was a groundskeeper came by and remarked that the fountain looked even worse than earlier that day. I tried to ask what could be done to fix it before we all died, but-Stop laughing!!"

Barely containing her giggles, Sunset smiled apologetically. "Sorry, sorry, but the image of you three going bananas over an essentially non-existent danger is-"

"Hmph." Crossing her arms as Aria and Sonata averted their eyes, Adagio went on. "Basically, he couldn't understand half of what we were saying, assuming we were 'hippies' high out of our-Are you even listening?!"

Sunset was visibly tearing up, biting her lower lip in a valiant effort not to laugh. She managed a nod.

"Urgh. He pointed us to the mortar that was supposed to be used to fix the fountain, which it turns out was already damaged, complained about lazy contractors, and stood back while we hastily grabbed the tools and got to work as best we could. The end result was a mess, but the fountain was patched up and he seemed to think we were going for some 'surreal hippie art pattern' for the uneven, wavy layers of mortar stopping the leaks. The end." She concluded with an irritated glare at Sunset, who had the decency to look as contrite as one could through an ear-to-ear grin.

They all stopped walking for a moment as she composed herself. "Okay," she said after a deep breath, "sorry. That was a... good start, but as long as most of what you talk about at the party isn't too... hectic, I don't think anyone else'll laugh at you." Sunset bowed her head a little. "Again, sorry."

Adagio rolled her eyes. "Well, I did tell you it makes no difference anymore what they think of us, so I don't really mind sharing the truth of things." Aria and Sonata shared a short, though possibly fearful glance as Adagio gave Sunset a pointed look. "Though I'd appreciate if we weren't interrupted in the process."

Sunset's sheepish smile was accompanied by a faint blush. When they got to the door to Rarity's large, two-story house, Sunset stopped them. "Before we go in, I feel like I should give you guys some warning. People probably haven't forgotten the whole brain-washing, take-over-the-world thing yet, so if you start getting weird looks, just stick together." She smiled a little. "I've noticed they're far less likely to, err, tell you how they really feel when your friends are nearby."

Adagio chuckled. "You'd know a thing or two about this, wouldn't you?"

"K-kinda..."

Observing her slightly withdrawn expression, Adagio felt... not satisfaction. What was this? Some kind of soft contempt? No, pity?

Before she could solve the mystery, Sunset smiled. "Well, here we go!" She opened the door. "Oh, one last thing, you might want to watch out for-" A pink blur slammed Sunset into the ground before she could finish the thought.

"OmigoshSunny,wethoughtyouweren'tgonnamakeit! Well,Ithoughtyouwouldmakeitandyoudidbecauseyou'rehere,HISUNNY!!"

Lying on the floor with the party planner sitting on her stomach, Sunset gave a somewhat weary grin. "Hi, Pinkie."

Pinkie giggled, looking to the perplexed trio that stared back at her. "Ooh, you really did invite the sirens! Rainbow was sure you were pulling our leg when you said that, but it was true! Hi, sirens!" She waved at them, getting hesitant, half-hearted waves back. It was right about then that Pinkie noticed she was only wearing her usual outfit, which was not suited to the cold. "Brrr, it's chilly out here! I'll be inside where it's toasty, you guys should come too!" She looked down at Sunset, who was still pinned under her. "You most of all, Sunny, the ground is way chilly!"

Sunset grinned a little wider. "Thanks Pinkie, I'll keep that in mind."

"Any time!" She hopped up and ran back inside, the group following.

Author's Notes:

Why yes, doing a thousand years of stories would be pretty insane. As would thirty, but this seemed a more manageable means of doing things. I went with the eighties because it sorta seems to fit with their wardrobe. Twilight looked effectively modern when she showed up, right?

Also, I intend to just have them say what happened rather than writing it all out for when things get kindof dull. A lot of stuff happens in the stories they share, but not all of it calls for full scenes, I think. That's probably going to be a bumpy ride, but the alternative is having the tales drag on far longer than they should have, like in another story I'm working on.

Chapter 2: What I Got I'll Give to You

Walking into the foyer, (Rarity later insisted the first room in the house was a foyer, but it was all elegantly decorated with immaculate, white surfaces, plush, purple carpets, and some fancy paintings, so nobody really asked questions) the girls set their winter clothes on the rack. Sunset discovered that the Dazzlings had apparently decided on wearing their dance outfits, the ones they were wearing when they first made a scene in the cafeteria, to the party.

Well, I didn't really change my look after getting friendship-blasted either...

In hindsight, that Adagio had been wearing her usual spiky boots maybe should have been a hint.

Sonata looked around, curious. "Hey, where is everybody?"

Aria crossed her arms, giving Sunset a look as though she was expecting some kind of ambush, Adagio giving her a less outwardly hostile, more curious version of the same stare.

Sunset checked her watch. "7:58. We're actually a little early." She gave the trio a hopeful smile. "The others should be in the living room, come on."

They followed, if only for lack of a real reason not to. The group saw the rest of the Rainbooms gathered in what was quite a spacious room. There were comfortable-looking chairs and couches arranged in a manner to invite socializing, a well-stocked snack table, and a wide, blank platform that might have been some manner of stage at the far end of the room. The group was gathered in a circle of soft chairs, Fluttershy nursing a bottle of soda as the others waved primarily to Sunset.

"Howdy!"
"Hi again!"
"Hey!"
"Good to see you all."

Pinkie frowned. "Aww, Rarity! You threw off the group alliteration!"

Rarity didn't bat an eye at the comment, she had a job to do as hostess for this event. "Welcome," she said as she stood up, "as you can likely see, the party isn't quite in full-swing yet, but more will be arriving shor-"

Ding-Dong!

"Ah, speak of the devil!" She giggled a little, stepping past the four Equestrians, "please, make yourselves comfortable and let me know if you need anything."

There was a short, awkward silence as Sunset stood next to the Dazzlings, the two small groups trading stares until Applejack spoke up. "May as well take a load off, Ah don't think much'll be goin' on 'til a bit later."

Sunset nodded, moving to take a seat nearby. She was pleasantly surprised to find the Dazzlings doing the same thing. Progress! They were seated near Sunset, but distinctly across from her four friends.

There was another awkward silence, this time broken by Pinkie attempting to start conversation. "So, how've you guys been since the batt-"

"Fine," Aria answered tersely, the Dazzlings collectively giving her a cold stare, getting a few back.

Fluttershy was sure both sides wanted to say much harsher things to each other, but it looked like Sunset's plea that they at least try to get along with the Dazzlings was holding up so far. Rainbow seemed to be doing that by just not saying anything, which was at least a start. She remembered what the others had said on the matter about an hour ago.

"Ah reckon none of us need remindin' what those three pulled a while back, but Sunset asked real nice that we don't go burnin' bridges any further. An' seein' as how we weren't exactly considerate with her at first? It'd probably mean a heck of a lot to her if we did better with them."

"Yea, yea," Rainbow said with a nod, "we play nice even if they don't, for Sunset's sake."

Rarity nodded, setting a flower vase perfectly in the center of a table, then turning it slightly for stylistic asymmetry, matching the tablecloth. "Indeed. Who knows," she said with a hopeful grin, "they may even let us give them makeovers!" She made a grasping motion in the air in front of her. "What I'd do to get my hands on their hair, especially those orange curls..."

"Yay, new friends! Or almost-friends. Frenemies? I hope they become our best frenemies, because I really like that word!"

"That's nice, Pinkie." Rarity kept fretting with the angle of the flower vase.

Still, she wondered what it was keeping the girls sitting across from them toned down to just standoffish, as opposed to hostile.

Are they here for Sunset? If anyone can get through to them, I'm sure it'd be her.

Sunset was reminded heavily of her own encounter with the group, back in the park. Still, three minutes of being in the same room and nobody was shouting.

So far so good!

She smiled as convincingly as possible, gesturing to the Dazzlings. "So, they were just telling me about their first day here. Where did you guys get to sleep?" She chuckled, blushing a little as she tried her own advice about sharing stories. "I spent my first night sleeping in the school building."

Go along with whatever they ask, Adagio told herself. It would probably save time if she edited out their old vernacular; the Rainbooms, who actually looked vaguely interested, weren't all as smart as Sunset Shimmer and thus might have trouble making the translations. "Our first night here passed at an inn..."

Following the madness at the slightly-less-broken fountain, the trio of misplaced sirens were awarded three towels with which to dry off. (their efforts on the fountain had left them quite soaked) After, the groundskeeper offered them a small stack of green, rectangular papers as he rambled about "damn lazy contractors" and "what's the world coming to when hippie chicks do a better job" and how he "may as well see they're compensated a little."

None of them knew what that meant, but Adagio was sure that the papers were given out of gratitude. Provided the man who handed it to them wasn't deeply disturbed, that probably meant it had some kind of value, so they held onto it. Around the time night was beginning to fall, the three of them felt the fatigue of the day sink in, and looked for somewhere to rest for the night.

"<Hey, Adagio?>"

"<Yes, Sonata?>"

"<I know long, flat rocks breaching the surface were kinda our bed of choice most nights in the sea, gazing up at the night sky as dreams took us, but->"

Aria let out a frustrated groan. "<Get to the point! These bodies take to stone like jellyfish to a shark's mouth!>"

"<Yea, that.>"

Adagio sighed, sitting up from the rock to address the soreness of her spine. "<I can't help agreeing. Let's try something else.>"

"<I saw a squirrel climb up a tree,>" suggested Sonata, "<maybe land-striders sleep in those?>"

"<As amusing as it might be,>" Adagio said with a shake of her head, "<I'd rather not risk anyone rolling about in their sleep, falling out and getting something broken. We don't know how to treat these bodies if they get injured.>"

Aria smirked. "<Well, we know they can survive many short falls, thanks to our brilliant leader.>"

Adagio again glared at her, trying to suppress a blush. "<Maybe I'll experiment further, starting with your head!>" Her angry gaze faded as she realized something. She glanced to the grass, as smooth and even here as any other part of the park, and remembered the feeling of the times she'd landed on it. It was mostly soft. Unlike rocks. "<I have an idea.>"

About half an hour later, the trio were lying comfortably on the grass, just a little cold in the summer air. Sonata had the idea that hair must have been for warmth, so she and Aria (however hesitantly) rested their heads in Adagio's puffy surplus. It was as just they started to drift off that someone happened by.

"Hey, what're you guys doin'?"

Aria groaned loudly, sitting up to address the nondescript newcomer. "<Trying to sleep, what's it to you?!>"

"...What?"

Adagio joined her. "<Sleep. That thing people do when exhaustion sets in. Or do they walk at all hours here?>"

The other-worlder this-worlder scratched his head. "Man, I don't know what you guys are puffin', but I bet it ain't legal. Are you tryin' to sleep on the grass? As far as hippies go, you gals are hard-core."

Starting to wonder if 'hippie' was some kind of slur for something, Adagio hmphed. "<And where would you have us sleep? We already tried the rocks.>"

He hesitantly thumbed over his shoulder. "There's a swanky hotel just around the block. If you don't live around here, maybe you could get a room there...?"

Directions given to the hotel, the trio soon found themselves talking to the woman at the front desk.

"Money," repeated the clerk, slowly, "that stuff you probably traded those for those outfits?" She smiled sheepishly. "Which, uh, look nice, by the way?"

Trade, thought Adagio, her face lighting up. "<Yes, I have a sample of tradeable paper to exchange!>"

The clerk sighed with relief. If not for her time minoring in theater, she might not have been able to understand these three at all. She briefly counted over the bills. "Uh, I'm sorry girls," she said with a frown, "you're about ten dollars short."

As Aria and Adagio traded glances, Sonata hatched a plan to keep them from doing anything that might make that police man show up again. Maybe she could just-

Wait, WHAT?!

Rainbow Dash wasn't the only one surprised by that last part, but she was the most vocal. "Someone called the cops on you guys? On day one?"

Adagio rolled her eyes, annoyed at the interruption. Still, maybe she shouldn't have skipped over this part after all. "No one called him as far as I know, but he was apparently in the area when I discovered human covering could be removed. It happened a little earlier in the day." While they were waiting for the broken fountain to flood the world, before Aria returned, but she didn't feel like reiterating that tale.

The curious stares only grew more-so, followed by those of a few more party guests that had showed up.

She shrugged, calmly explaining with only a bored expression on her face. "Clothing. We thought it was the equivalent of scales and-"

Applejack raised a hand. "Scales? Y'all used to be mermaids or somethin'?"

"Hippocampi." She'd have remarked on the interruptions again, but at this rate, that would only make things take longer. "We thought clothing was this world's answer to scales and that it's removal would cause a lot of bleeding, but this wasn't the case. It did get the attention of the officer, however, who told me removing too much was a taboo for some reason." The former mer-horse tugged at her light, pink vest. "I'm still not entirely clear on that, actually."

By the way Sonata and Aria blushed and quietly facepalmed, respectively, Sunset guessed they had more or less figured it out. A male voice from not far away cheekily spoke up. "Do you think you could show us?"

There were some chuckles, some eye-rolls, some glares (primarily from the girls in the room), and a friendly smack upside the head directed at the speaker before Adagio replied. "Sure."

Sunset was pretty sure her heart stopped for a split second as Adagio started undressing, Aria and Sonata trading nervous glances as if to say 'should we stop her?' As no one else seemed to be doing much more than giggling or watching gobsmacked, Sunset started to panic, moving to politely suggest nobody undress right now.

What she ended up doing was tackling Adagio out of her seat just as she'd gotten the vest off.

Sunset tried to ignore the stares of the entire room as she whispered through a forced smile. "What are you doing?!"

Quietly wondering if tackling people was Sunset Shimmer's solution to every problem when there were a lot of witnesses, Adagio gave the girl on top of her a dull glare as she whispered back. "That sounded like an invitation, what's the problem?"

"Normal people don't take their clothes off in public!"

"Oh? How well do you remember the Battle of the Bands? Just before you-"

Sunset's face was nearly fluorescent. The whole room staring and whispering didn't help. "T-that was different! I was just-"

Adagio rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Can I get up, or are you going to make this worth my while?"

Sunset leapt off faster than she'd tackled the poofy-haired girl, who may have been cushioned in the fall by her curls. Brushing off the dust in an unconscious effort to remove the focus of the room from herself, she gritted her teeth at the first person she saw. "Not one word, Trixie..."

The amateur magician scowled. "Trixie wasn't going to say anything!"

Glancing around as Adagio put the vest back on and took her seat, in a leisurely pose as though nothing had happened, Sunset figured she'd have to remove herself from the situation to get everyone to stop staring at her. Hoping the Dazzlings would be okay on their own for a little while, she gave the room a smile. "I'll be getting some punch, be right back!" She walked off at a less-than-casual pace, her friends trading worried glances before Fluttershy got up to follow her.

Aria cleared her throat, Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie returning their attention to the trio as Adagio nodded gratefully to her. "As I was saying..."

Chapter 3: Yellow Submarine

So, Sonata hatched a plan to stop her friend (and Aria) from doing anything that might get the three of them in trouble. She approached the counter and imitated what she'd seen the little girl in the paper hat do earlier that day. Folding one arm over the other as she clasped her hands in front of her, Sonata leaned forward a little and gave the clerk a wide, wobbly-eyed look, adding a pout.

The clerk flinched, her mouth opening and closing a few times as Sonata pressed the attack, Aria and Adagio standing behind her, looking somewhat bewildered. "W-well," uttered the clerk, "I, I-I guess you're only a little short, maybe we can give you a room just for the night?"

As the trio were given a key, Sonata made sure to seal the spell with a show of happiness, smiling contentedly just as the little girl had upon getting what she was after, the woman behind the desk smiling at her in the same way the ice cream vendor had for the little girl.

They set off to find the door labeled with the same digits as the little tag attached to the key, (the letters and numbers appeared to be the same in this world as in Equestria, oddly enough) Adagio turning to Sonata when they were out of earshot of this world's inhabitants. "<How did you do that?>"

"<I don't know! Now let's hurry before they change their minds!>"

Once they were in their designated room, the three quickly found that the large, rectangular platforms there were a much better answer to their earlier attempts at bedding. Each had it's own smaller, softer rectangle lying on one end, and a thick sheet presumably functioning as clothing for the structures themselves. They would call these things 'beds' until informed otherwise.

Each lying upon a different 'bed,' the trio had some time to talk before drifting off to sleep.

"<Hey,>" inquired Aria, "<given our ability to, you know, make people do whatever we want by singing to them, couldn't we have just demanded this room for free?>"

Adagio and Sonata blinked, looked at eachother, looked back at Aria again, and facepalmed.

"<I thought,>" replied Adagio with no small amount of annoyance, "<that Starswirl saying we would be all but powerless here meant completely powerless, but if Sonata could tunelessly bewitch that key-keeper in the front room...?>" She looked at Sonata with something between irritation and relief. "<We should probably just sing from now on, but we'll see how much trading paper we can get from people as well. No telling what its power is in this world, and we'll need everything we can get when we go back to deal with that wizard.>"

"So," Adagio summarized, "after securing our place in that luxury hotel the following morning, where we'd remain for the next eight months or so, we started familiarizing ourselves with this realm." She smiled, glancing at those who had gathered to hear the story. "And that was our Day One. Who would like to share next?"

As those that had been listening to the Dazzlings murmured amongst themselves, their attention was seized by a boisterous voice from across the room.

"Time now for a magnificent display like none you've ever seen!"

Just about everyone turned toward the platform being used as a stage, where Trixie, wearing a purple, starry cape and matching pointy hat, had set things up to begin her magic act. She may not have had the highest opinion of the Dazzlings after what they pulled, but it was nice of them to warm up the crowd for her! "Watch and be amazed, party-goers, as another year ends with the legendary sorcery of the Great, and Powerful Trrrrrixie!"

If anyone had planned to share details of their own lives, the sort that might give any de-powered megalomaniacs in the room a better idea how to worm their way into others' heads, those plans were nixed in the face of Trixie's purple pyrotechnics.

Adagio noticed, crossing her arms and trying not to outwardly scowl.

Well, no matter, it's the Rainbooms we're here for anyway.

That their numbers had dwindled to three now was not promising. Glancing at Aria and Sonata, she found they were salvaging the situation as best they could; pretending to be just as interested in Trixie's performance as most of those nearby. Patience was the only option here.

Still, she thought as Trixie started cutting a saw in half with a piece of paper, if I can get them to talk like Sunset Shimmer did, we'll be one step closer to rebuilding.

Good thing they were waiting, because she would need more time to figure out how Sunset did it.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer took a long drink of strawberry punch. She never really got into liquor back in Equestria, but she wondered if it would help her relax at all.

Probably not. With my luck, I'd be a shouty drunk and freak them out even more.

Feeling something touch her shoulder so faintly that she wasn't even sure it was there, Sunset smiled a little. "Hey, Fluttershy."

"H-how did you know it was me?"

Turning to face her, Sunset giggled. "Don't worry about it. What's up?"

Fluttershy tilted her head a little. "I was just wondering if you were okay."

Sunset smiled a little wider. "Yea, I'm fine."

And then Fluttershy gave her that look. The one that says 'I know you're trying to hide something from me, but I still want to help you. Can I? Please?' Sunset felt her upper lip twitch and her throat start to constrict, but she did her best to hold strong. "Was there anything else you wanted?"

Puppy Eyes. "Sunset?"

Aagh, dammit!

The facade crumbled as Sunset sighed. "Okay, I, I'm, it's, uh..." She glanced toward the main room. "Talking to the Dazzlings is still a little awkward for me, I guess."

The soul-penetrating gaze faded to an understanding smile as Fluttershy nodded. "That's okay, just don't let that get to you and I think they'll be your friends before long too."

Sunset lowered her eyes, brushing one arm. "I don't really know if it's that simple."

There was a short silence, Fluttershy looking around a few times to make sure nobody was in ear-shot even as she whispered. "I-is this about, um, that thing we talked about yesterday?"

Sunset's answer wasn't as controlled. "No! I mean, well, kinda, a little, I-I just, uh..." Sunset flushed. She'd had to confide in someone about what was going through her head the last day or two and she just kind of thought Fluttershy was the most likely to understand the kind of feeling she'd been getting. She was mostly right. "M-maybe?"

Turning slightly rosy herself, Fluttershy nodded. "I, um, I think, you'll want to make sure, before you say anything." She fidgeted nervously, avoiding eye-contact. "Otherwise it'd be, uh, k-kind of-"

"Awkward?"

"Yes!" They giggled together until Fluttershy smiled at her with rare confidence. "But, I think you'll be okay. I know the others felt a little uncomfortable around you too at first, and now we're all friends. You might feel strange around the Dazzlings right now, but," her smile was wider than the next statement might ordinarily have warranted, "I feel a little awkward almost all the time. I wonder if I'm doing things right, if I'm bothering anyone somehow, like, I'm not sure if I should even be saying this, but, things almost always turn out fine. You just have to believe in yourself!" She seemed to lose some measure of awareness of what she'd just said, doing the exact opposite. "Uhm, I-I mean, unless you'd rather not, because sometimes that isn't best, but, I-I don't know when, it's like, uh-"

Sunset couldn't help a chuckle. "That, kinda helps, I guess."

Fluttershy smiled again. "Would you like to join me with the others?"

"I think I should probably stay away for a bit," her cheeks tinted red, "don't want Adagio thinking I'll go crazy and tackle her again."

"Actually, I think having you around might make things easier for them." Sunset blinked, looking at Fluttershy in surprise. "W-well, I know I always feel safer near my friends, so, even if you aren't really close..."

Remembering her own advice to the Dazzlings earlier, Sunset smiled. "I think you might be right. Okay, let's head back."

Fluttershy smiled too. "Right."

Trixie's magic show didn't last terribly long, but three members of her audience were grateful for that. Far fewer were inclined to share stories when they could watch a stage magician repeatedly pull the wrong thing out of a hat, after all. Trixie looked frustrated, but most people clapped anyway as she drew an egg, a flower, a matchbox, a small toaster, car keys, ("Did someone lose these? Please pick them up after the show.") a pillow, and finally a deck of cards, which Trixie seemed to begrudgingly accept as she moved on to card tricks. She wrapped up with a trick that involved throwing the deck into the air, the cards landing in just such a way as to form a small house of cards, which Trixie left the audience to appreciate (many did) as she made her way to the snack table.

"So," Adagio asked the assembled Rainbooms, who had all returned to their seats during Trixie's show, with the most pleasant smile she could manage, "who else has something they'd like to share?"

"Actually," Applejack hesitantly said while scratching her head, "Ah'm a mite curious 'bout you three. What'd y'all get up to livin' eight months in a hotel room?"

Before any of them could steer the conversation back at her, a few voices from nearby showed that the trio had not been entirely forgotten in the presence of Trixie's Improbable Card-House.

"I'm kinda wondering about that too."
"Did you guys sit around ordering room service all day?"
"I could get used to that!"
"Did they have a pool there?"

The Dazzlings collectively took a quick look around, Sunset worried about the uncertain looks on their faces.

Oh, no, do they feel surrounded? Like they're being boxed in?

It didn't happen often, but Sunset knew she had hated when it felt like people were ganging up on her, no matter how many times she had gotten others to do it to each other before. "M-maybe we should-"

Before she could make any suggestions, Adagio gave the nearby party-goers a smile and a somewhat awkward laugh. "Sorry, one moment, please?" She turned to Aria and Sonata, who quickly joined her in a group huddle. That raised a few eyebrows, but nobody could hear what they were saying.

"This isn't working," Sonata whispered, "they're just getting us to talk about stuff."

"Yes," Adagio huffed, "but it's possible we just haven't shared enough to make them drop their guard. This may take some time, but for now it looks like our best option."

Aria shrugged a little. "Not like it's hard, and we've got nothin' to lose. If they start to gab, great, but if not, we're at least killing some time."

Sonata frowned. "Things did get kinda boring at the hotel." Then she brightened. "Ooh, maybe we could tell them about that?"

Adagio chuckled. "Few things are more boring than stories about being bored. If we want to keep their attention long enough for this to work, we'll have to keep sharing more eventful occasions." She smirked a little. "I count six Rainbooms again, too, any of them might speak up soon."

Aria copied her expression. "The attention is pretty nice, nobody's even giving us the stink-eye. Maybe we could tell 'em about our first time at a pool? I think someone asked about that."

Adagio nodded. "That should do. Break!"

Quickly returning to their previous arrangement, apparently not noticing the odd looks they were getting, the trio smiled as though they weren't obviously just hatching some kind of scheme in the middle of the room. "They didn't have a pool at the hotel," answered Sonata, "but somebody told us about one in town a while after we got there..."

Roughly a week after their arrival, the sirens had mostly adapted their speech to match that of the locals. Adagio still slipped up when she was frustrated enough, as when she failed to master swimming for the third time. Aria and Sonata sat with her on the park bench, wringing out her hair as best they could.

"I keep telling you," Aria said while twisting as much lake water as she could out of the long lock of orange in her hands, "these creatures don't swim. They don't have gills, they don't have fins, and this, hair stuff just makes it even harder. These bodies do not go in the water."

"A twisted joke is the kindness of ponies," Adagio seethed, "t'was not enough to sever us from our home and the greater portion of our power, but to forbid that we even-"

"Hey," Sonata nudged her, still squeezing her hair as dry as she could get it, "they talk different here, remember? People are gonna keep looking at us funny if you don't do it too." They still weren't sure what the long-term consequences for that were, strangers from nowhere acting odd, and didn't really want to find out.

Adagio let out a long-suffering sigh. "Sending us to another dimension, I already hope to kill him for, but making it so we can't ever swim again?"

Before she could list the ways she might have liked to devastate pony civilization, the three of them heard chuckles from a passerby. "You know, most people just head to the local pool when they feel like takin' a dip."

The trio looked at each other, then the speaker, replying in unison. "Pool?"

About an hour later, they stood in a shop offering the sort of garments they'd been told to procure before entering bodies of water larger than a bathtub. Adagio had chalked up her first failure to swim to simply not having enough room to maneuver. Regardless, speaking to a shop attendant, a plain-looking young woman, the garment called 'swimsuit' was identified, in many varied and colorful forms.

"So," Sonata asked, "as long as we're wearing these, we can go outside without worrying about the cops?"

The attendant looked back at them, lost. "I-I'm sorry, what?"

Aria shrugged. "I wasn't there when it happened, but something to do with exposure laws." It made some kind of sense, at least back when they thought taking clothes off was a crippling injury.

"It's, uh, not against the law to wear a bikini, no."

Looking over some of the smaller selections, Adagio grinned. Twenty minutes later, the three of them had chosen water wear that fit them. Sonata wore a dark-blue halter top and matching briefs, Aria chose a black one-piece that left most of her back and stomach exposed, and Adagio had tied on the smallest, most tight-fitting string bikini she could find. It was almost the same color as her skin, give or take the bulbous red dots across it's surface. It might have been more accurate to say she was wearing a red bikini that looked like it had parts missing, but it was as close to 'naked' as she could legally get.

Adagio smirked, lightly tugging on the strings keeping her top in place. "And it's important that these bands never come undone until I'm ready to stop swimming?"

"VERY important!!"

Adagio guessed that the attendant's face turning red, like Aria's had when her unfortunate scale affliction was mentioned, meant that that color indicated embarrassment in humans. Something about nudity caused discomfort, but from now on she'd know that as long as the areas she had covered remained so, law enforcement would leave her alone.

Can I, uh, skip the part where the three of us walking down the street in swimsuits might have caused a traffic accident?

What, the best part?

You got problems, Dagi.

I only mean that it was the first time we were all clearly appreciated in this world, Sonata.

R-right...

They arrived at the public swimming pool, having learned on the way what sort of attention their current attire brought, and how it might be used to their advantage. One of them in particular had trouble leaving this aspect of their quest for later.

"Adagio," growled Aria, "we're here to swim, remember?"

"Yes," she replied with a smirk, her attention more on the small crowd (mostly of males) she'd entranced with experimental bodily oscillations, "but I've found something else I love doing." She wiggled her midsection slowly and tauntingly at her admirers. "Gyration of the regulation cover-up areas seems to draw the most focus."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Fine, you figure out how all that works, me and Sonata will do the thing we came here to do."

Still slowly moving her limbs where onlookers could appreciate the sight of her skin, Adagio shot Aria a shifty look, whispering. "Good plan, we'll compare notes later."

Aria blinked twice. Her own comment might have been said mockingly, but that may have been the first time Adagio had praised her in some way since their arrival in this world. She smiled a little, immediately turning toward the humans' designated swimming area. "Right."

Aria had followed the swimming instructor's guidelines only long enough to not drown in seconds. She was a siren, she could figure out how to move through water in a gill-less body on her own. Sonata, however, had experience with improving her skills by listening to others' advice.

"You know," Sonata said to the young woman in the one-piece red swimsuit acting as the swimming instructor and lifeguard, "you kinda look like the lady at the hotel."

The instructor nodded, sighing in a manner that suggested she had explained this a few times before. "Yes, my sisters and I all work in the same town. We're octuplets, so you may have met some of us already." Like the hotel clerk, she was a friendly-looking woman with short, blonde hair and green eyes, her skin a lighter shade of pink. She smiled a little. "I'm Abbie Atta, nice to meet you."

Sonata grinned back at her. "Call me Sonata! So how do I not choke on the water here?"

Abbie blinked. "Erm... H-hold your breath?"

"Okay!" Sonata did just that. For a worryingly long time.

"N-not indefinitely!!"

Sonata tilted her head, visibly confused.

Abbie quickly looked around, not sure if she would get fired if someone found a way to drown without even getting wet. "Like, uh, not forever?"

Sonata resumed respiration. She'd been starting to turn blue!

"Alright," sighed Abbie a little later, "now that we've worked out when to hold your breath and when not to, let's try getting in the water." To her relief, Sonata didn't just belly-flop into the pool, but carefully descended the short ladder to the shallow end, resting her feet on the floor.

"Good job, Sonata," taunted Aria with a smirk as she back-stroked by, "you can stand in water."

Abbie might have said something about not mocking people learning to do things, but neither were listening. Sonata raised a suspicious eyebrow. "And how'd you get it so quick?"

Not stopping her back-strokes, Aria scoffed. "Easy, just watched some other land-striders around here and did what they did. Plus, keep your face in the air." She swam around Sonata a few more times. "I could do this aaaaall day."

Sonata crossed her arms and turned away, refusing to give Aria the satisfaction of a response! "Just you wait," she responded, "I'll swim even better than you do!"

"Doubt it. Later, land-legs!" And off she stroked to the deeper end, where she could practice diving a bit.

Abbie smiled a little at Sonata. "Don't worry about her, let's just focus on the basics."

Sonata grinned. "Yea!"

"Let's start with floating. Lean back in the water and try to relax."

She did.

"That's good, Sona-... T-too relaxed, TOO RELAXED, WAKE UP!!"

"Try kicking in the water. No, we are not trying to teach the water who's boss here..."

"No, we are not learning mixed, underwater martial arts. Where did you even get that idea?"

"Y-yes, you have mastered coughing up the water, not dying in it. And, I'm very proud of you?"

"No, punching the water 'like it owes you money' will not help you swim better."

Abbie fought a long, difficult campaign against Sonata's ditziness, but was rewarded with a strange, blue girl that knew how to swim. Aria, on the other hand, was figuring things out on her own. One of them was that extended swimming may undo one's hairbands, and that long, long, untied hair may tangle one up a little when swimming, to the point that arm movement may become difficult at a crucial moment. Luckily, she was rescued by Abbie. Unluckily, Abbie had a condition for saving her life.

"Why do I gotta do this 'basics' crap? I was swimming just fine!"

"Yes," Abbie said with a serious expression, "you were swimming fine. And then you almost drowned due to an amateur mistake."

"But-"

The swimming instructor/lifeguard hybrid crossed her arms, her tone authoritative. "Please lean back in the water and try to relax."

Aria grumbled, only more when she noticed Sonata standing behind Abbie and making smug faces at her.

"Oh," Abbie added, "and please put on this swimming cap, we wouldn't want a repeat of your earlier incident."

It was a small, stupid-looking, yellow thing, one Aria didn't need to wear to know it would make her feel like an idiot. "There is no way I'm going to-"

Abbie smiled, but kept a firm tone. "There is no way you're going to swim safely without something to keep your hair in check."

Holding the cap, Aria blushed. She might have been able to sing the instructor into seeing things her way, but she really didn't want to risk almost dying again in public. "F-fine." She muttered under her breath when putting it on, trying to tune out Sonata's giggles.

"You too, Sonata."

"Huh?!"

Abbie frowned a bit. "Actually, I should have given you one earlier, your hair's pretty wild too."

Given her own goofy cap, Sonata looked uncertain. "Uh, I-"

Abbie used the stern look she'd given many disobedient children that tried to shirk underwater safety. Though these two looked a bit bigger than the usual. "Put it on."

"Eek! Okay!"

Abbie smiled, though she wasn't sure how much good it would do with so much hair. Looking at Aria, her jaw dropped. The cap was perfectly in place, Aria's massive, purple locks completely concealed.

WHAT?!

Sonata's voice got her attention. "Like this?" Her cap was on right too, not at all hampered by a mass of blue hair.

Abbie looked back and forth at them in shock.

No, that's not possible, they must have been wearing wigs! But, where are they now? Where could they have hidden-

Aria sounded annoyed. "We doin' this, or what?"

Composing herself, Abbie just tried to ignore... whatever just happened to focus on her job.

By the time her humiliation was complete, Aria had to admit that she'd at least learned a thing or two she hadn't thought to try on her own. Now seemed like a good time to report to Adagio. Stepping out of the pool and taking her stupid cap off, she spotted the orange puff-ball she'd been following around since a little after they met, surrounded primarily by drooling males as she rested on a pool chair, wearing dark glasses.

"Take five, boys," she cooed to her attendees, "I have a visitor."

They backed away from her, however reluctantly, but Aria was pleased to see that they seemed to welcome her approach.

Adagio noticed, offering her friendliest smirk. "Want to make them fetch things for you without a single tune? Try squeezing-" she indicated the flesh hidden by the top of her bikini, "-these together between your arms."

Aria chuckled. "Right. Wanna know how swimming works?"

Adagio looked back at her blankly.

"...Swimming," Aria repeated, "that thing we came here to-"

"Oh, that!"

Aria facepalmed. "Did you seriously forget?"

"So what if I did?" Adagio gestured to her band of love-slaves, eyebrows furrowed. "I was a little preoccupied!" Turning her head to show them a coy grin, she waved her individual fingers at them, eliciting a startled, yet visibly joyful response. "The smallest details of movement can have the most interesting impact..."

Wondering how long it would take to really get used to this little trait their leader had, Aria rolled her eyes. "Right, well, swimming." Holding up the yellow cap, she smirked. "For starters, you've gotta wear this."

Tilting her head, Adagio eyed the cap curiously. "What is it?"

"Safety measure, totally required."

To Aria's slight surprise and considerable annoyance, Adagio shrugged, putting on the cap without hesitation. "How do I look," Aria would have answered with 'bald and dorky', but the question wasn't directed at her, "boys?"

If there were any in that crowd that had only loved her for her hair, they didn't show it, cheering and clapping as Adagio winked at them. Despite the stupid cap.

Sonata seemed to forget she was wearing her cap in minutes, thought Aria, am I the only one that hates those ugly things?!

To Aria's slight gratification, some of Adagio's stooges were actually still looking at her.

Oddly for Adagio, she didn't immediately try to bring their attention back to herself, but whispered to Aria conspiratorially when she noticed. "Ooh, here's a chance! Slowly shift your weight from one leg to the other with your arms up, hands behind your head, fingertips just barely touching. Make sure they can see at least a little of your face."

Eyes darting back and forth between her fans and Adagio, Aria gave it a try. The response was a lot like the one they gave Adagio's finger-waggling.

Adagio looked pleased at this too. "Just stretching in general is a good way to see who's interested. Also, I haven't worked it all out yet, but breathing with the right force and timing seems to have an effect as well."

"Speaking of breathing," Aria said, trying to keep to her task, "to swim here, they-"

"Hey, guys!" Sonata popped up between the two of them, which only startled them a little. "Wanna come play Marco-Polo? It's a game some kids showed me about wandering around in the water with your eyes closed, like Sharkbait, only with nobody getting eaten!"

Aria groaned with exasperation. "Am I the only one here that can focus?!"

Adagio rolled her eyes. "Enthralling the population is just as-no, it's probably more important than being able to swim now." She looked away with a hint of worry. "Alien as that might sound..."

Sonata tilted her head, frowning. "Can't we just have a little fun sometimes?"

As the trio discussed priorities, they started to hear what sounded like arguing. Turning to the source of the sounds, it looked like Adagio's fan club was breaking apart, starting to argue over which of the three girls was the most attractive. Dropping their discussion for now, the three looked to each other with devious grins. They easily agreed on what to do from here.

Fifteen minutes later, the pool was a mess, chairs knocked over and thrown around, tattered swimsuits floating in the water, a few people knocked unconscious, and everyone that hadn't been directly involved in the chaos fled the scene. Abbie Atta, lifeguard and swimming instructor, hung by the shoulder straps of her swimsuit from the diving board in a daze. "Ugh... I should have been a dentist."

Back in the hotel room, the sirens noticed that they hadn't really gotten all that much energy from the fight they'd started, but that wasn't their primary concern right now.

"Ow, ow ow!!" Sonata winced, not sure why her skin was red and stingy now.

Aria stood with her limbs apart, suffering a similar affliction. "Quit touching it, you dolt!"

"I can't help it," whined Sonata, "it huuuurts!"

Aria raised an eyebrow, feeling a tiny jab of pain in her forehead. "So you make it worse? Idiot."

Sonata angrily pouted at her. "Oh, yea? Take this!" She stabbed a finger into the redness of Aria's shoulder.

"OW!! Why you little-!"

Adagio, reclining on a soft chair, watched in fascination as Aria and Sonata poked each other. Her thralls at the pool had mentioned rubbing lotion of some sort on her to prevent something they called 'sunburn', but not understanding what they meant, she had refused. Now it made sense. Her hair had apparently caught most of the sun's rays, leaving only her arms, legs, and some of her stomach red and tingly, but it was an interesting sensation none the less. Painful, but not terribly so, just a dull ache. Running a hand along the opposite arm, she bristled. You definitely didn't get this with scales.

Remembering something else she'd heard her servants talking about rubbing on her if she did get 'sunburned', Adagio stood up, a tingling feeling running up her spine at the little waves of pain from her red skin, and headed out to see if she could find this 'aloe' substance for the three of them.

Adagio would try what she learned about swimming from the others at a later date, but it wasn't quite what she had hoped it would be. Even staying at the bottom of the deep end with a scuba tank for an hour or two just wasn't the same as feeling the depth, the vastness of the open sea that she sometimes missed. Determining that none of them would be able to feel that again any time soon, she eventually settled for keeping her memories of the sea as just one more reason to butcher that pony mage if she ever saw him again.

"And that's how our first time at a pool went!" Sonata looked around for raised hands to see if anyone had questions. There were none, but she and a few others did notice Rainbow Dash snickering.

"Sunburn, huh?" She laughed for a few seconds, joined by some others as the Dazzlings collectively scowled at her, but she looked back at them with an apologetic smile. "Hey, I get it, sunburn totally sucks. I got it pretty bad the last time we went to the beach, but I still won the contest!"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "The current nearly dragged you out to sea, Rainbow Dash."

"Still won!"

Her indignance thrown aside, Adagio kept any eagerness out of her voice and expression. "What happened?"

Rainbow didn't deny to share the story, didn't make excuses, didn't demand anything else in exchange for the information. She just smiled. "Me, AJ, and Pinkie wanted to see who could swim out the farthest and back, and I won!"

"That time," Applejack said with a challenging smirk.

Things were quiet for a few seconds as Adagio stared at Rainbow. "Go on."

Rainbow shrugged. "That's kinda it, that's the whole story."

"Hm." It wasn't much, but it looked like Sunset Shimmer had been on to something after all. The plan was starting to work.

We need only be patient, thought Adagio, it seems they're competitive, but only a few?

On that note, she knew swimming wasn't a big deal for land-walkers, so what did competition mean to the Rainbooms? It was something analyze more later.

With the tales of cute girls in swimsuits concluded, the party guests spaced out a little more to chat amongst themselves, barring the Rainbooms, who remained seated. It was just as Adagio was trying to think of how to wheedle more information out of them that she noticed Flash Sentry's band, Flashdrive, setting up their equipment on the stage.

"Damn it," Ringo cursed, "something's wrong with the amplifier again."

The teal-haired boy, whose name Adagio didn't know, shook his head. "Electronics, man, never know when stuff'll just break down."

Ringo looked at Flash. "I think we can go ahead anyway, but the sound'll be kinda janked. Got any ideas?"

Flash took a long look at the amplifier, scratching his chin. Not knowing how to fix it himself, and not wanting to put on a less-than-stellar performance, (Rarity's place had this kind of 'you'd-better-do-stuff-right'-ness about it) he walked over to where the Rainbooms, and the Dazzlings, were seated. "Hey, any of you guys know much about wiring?"

Smelling opportunity, Adagio grinned, standing up. "I may be able to offer some assistance." Getting some curious looks from several party guests, she amended her offer a bit. "If, er, that isn't a problem...?"

Flash smiled almost immediately. "Sure thing!" Now it was him getting odd stares, but he didn't seem to notice. "Right over here."

As Adagio walked to the stage to see what she could help with, Sunset wondered if anyone else caught the split-second glance Aria and Sonata gave each other. It was faint, but it looked like they were both worried about something. Was it obvious that Adagio was trying to ingratiate herself by doing people favors? Did they notice? Maybe they'd give her the benefit of the doubt. Which, Sunset noticed with more than a hint of guilt, is exactly what she herself didn't do, just then.

Pinkie tilted her head, watching Adagio look over the band's equipment. "She knows how that stuff works?"

Aria shrugged. "Kinda. She'll screw with anything if she thinks there's something in it for us."

Sonata held a hand over her own mouth to stifle her giggles, Rarity raising an eyebrow. "Something you'd like to share, darling?"

"Heeheeheehee! K-kinda!" She looked at Aria. "Remember the first time we all watched TV together?"

Aria crossed her arms in annoyance, but couldn't repress a tiny smirk. "You could have told us what that thing did sooner, you know."

Sonata shrugged guiltily. "Sorry, just didn't occur to me."

The two of them noticed the Rainbooms staring their way, likely waiting for an explanation. Seeing no reason not to oblige, Aria shrugged. "Hey Shimmer, remember the first time you saw a magical, glass box?"

Sunset tinted red, the focus on her now. "Huh?! I don-" Oh, wait. "Oh, a television? Yea. That was an interesting day."

Aria nodded. "Sonata had been using the one in the hotel room when we were out or asleep-"

Sonata frowned. "I get bored by myself."

"-understatement-so when we saw her making it work one day, it went like this..."

Author's Notes:

If you're wondering why I'm not describing the people in the flashbacks much, it's because very few of them are recurring characters over the 30-ish years the Dazzlings will be talking about. Itsy-bitsiest bit-parts I ever bit into. (Except for the Atta sisters, I mean.)

Ringo is the one with black and white hair and glasses, the one Adagio teases at the end of the table she walks on during their first song. I couldn't find teal-hair's name in a reasonable time frame, and only needed one of them to be properly identified anyway.

Next time: Tune in for The Dazzlings Vs. Television!

Chapter 4: I Think You'll Understand

In the week following the sunburn incident, the sirens had learned a few things. One of them was that clothing needed to be cleaned after a while, and that there were special machines with which to do that. Luckily, someone was around to explain to them that getting inside the machines themselves with the clothing they hoped to cleanse was not only a terrible idea, but not necessary. Not wanting to risk a stray policeman showing up while they were performing this task, Adagio opted to wear her swimsuit instead of waiting around in the nude, Aria and Sonata following her example. However, the three still turned heads as they waited for their clothes to be processed. After the first twenty minutes, Adagio was persuaded that maybe they didn't need to find and practice seduction methods at every opportunity, even if tight, revealing outfits were all they had at the moment.

Err, n-not to interrupt or nothin', but didn't y'all say this were about yer first time with a TV? Think we got enough struttin' around half-naked last time...

Yea, yea, I'm getting there, but this is what happened first.

To 'remedy' their state of legal undress, however hesitantly, Adagio suggested that they head to the mall while their garments were being cleaned to pick up more. Ignoring sounds of screeching tires and breaking glass as they walked down the street this time, they spent a few hours finding outfits they liked and ultimately deciding on a kind of uniform for maintaining a low profile; jeans and light hoodies. Later that afternoon, they were back in the hotel room, new clothes and clean clothes left in a large collection of bags in one corner of the room.

Aria scratched her head. "So, where do we keep stuff here? Might not be long before we run out of room."

Adagio visibly puzzled. The hotel room was spacious, but still quite finite. "It's possible we won't need more than this, but if so, we may eventually need to relocate to somewhere more-"

They were startled by an utterly alien sound from behind them, like something being scratched with no sort of claw they'd ever seen. Whipping around, the two witnessed Sonata sitting on the bed closest to a glowing box on the dresser.

"Sonata," inquired Adagio, "what are you doing? What is that thing?"

"I dunno," she called over her shoulder, "but whatever it is, it talks when you push the little button. I don't think it can hear it when you talk back, though."

Sharing a quick look, Aria and Adagio shrugged, taking a seat by Sonata to observe the strange little window. It was indeed capable of speech, along with projecting images into their minds somehow. Perhaps it worked like a scrying pearl, showing events that took place elsewhere? Whatever it was, the three of them observed this Talking Visualizer, TV for short, for the better part of an hour before Adagio started to smile in her usual way.

Sonata smiled too, though with fewer teeth. "Ooh, plan time?"

Their leader chuckled darkly. "Something like that, yes. These creatures have left us with the means by which to understand their little world. How many instructive sessions popped up in between the theater acts, just in the time we've been watching?"

"Twelve," answered Sonata.

"Twelve or so an hour, then... We need only exploit the available information to learn just what we need to do to make this world ours." She raised a hand to form it into a fist, one of many such actions the trio had found themselves doing just because it felt right. "And that we'll know just how to twist these people with knowledge gained through their own networks will make it all the sweeter!"

Starting with Adagio, the group laughed, Aria and Sonata sounding nothing like conspirators in a nefarious plot.

And so they sat, waiting for what they learned from a smart-assed sitcom character's comments were called commercials. The ones that came up were between arcane and utterly baffling at first, but the sirens would not be dissuaded! After just another hour, Aria got curious about the buttons on the side of the box and learned that you could push them to make the TV show a different line of acts and commercials, that at any given time, at least one was bound to be on commercial. They started doing that, so as to absorb more information sooner instead of waiting for old people to win money or products by spinning large, number-adorned discs.

"So," tried Aria, attempting to condense what the group had witnessed, "they've got magic in this world, but mainly in the form of cleaning equipment and snack foods?"

"That can't be right," Adagio said with a hand on her chin, "I'm sure this will all start to make sense sooner or later."

Another hour later...

Sonata giggled. "If all these two-dimensional animals are trying to get people to buy stuff by doing our thing, they're total amateurs!"

Aria and Adagio giggled too.

Two more hours later...

"So like," pondered Aria, "do they make kids' toys based on cartoons, or do they make cartoons based on kids' toys? And, how does any of it matter?"

Adagio continued to wrack her brain trying to make sense of it.

Two MORE hours later...

Aria and Sonata yawned at the same time. "Okay," said the latter, "I don't get any of... this."

Aria couldn't even think to form words, rubbing her bloodshot eyes.

"I'm not giving up," said Adagio with a quiet snarl, "there must be something we can use in all this. What sense does it make to keep a broadcasting service active at all times and use it for nothing of value?!"

"I dunno, but I'm hitting the roc-err, bed." Realizing her hindquarters were already parked on a bed, Sonata scooted over to where the pillows were. "Night!"

Aria dragged herself to more or less the same position on the next bed over, losing consciousness the moment she flopped down.

Three more hours later...

Light and sound from the screen roused Sonata from her slumber. The first thing she noticed was that even from the back, their leader was looking... frazzled. "Um, D-Dagi?" She kept her voice down. For reasons. "Are you sure you don't wanna... y'know... sleep?"

Adagio didn't turn to look at her, the only reply a short, incomprehensible series of noises that sounded a little like swears.

Sonata promptly rolled right back over and pretended to have never woken, seriously wondering if going to her usual source of comfort the next time she had a nightmare was such a hot idea.

Seven hours later...

Morning had come, and while Aria and Sonata were feeling refreshed, they stood for the longest time in indecision. Adagio was sitting exactly where she had been the previous night, her red eyes wide and unblinking, her face pale, and her expression a mix of determination and quiet rage.

Sonata played with the tip of her ponytail. "Should we like... do something?"

"Sure," Aria replied with crossed arms, "you first."

Scowling a little at her jellyfish companion, Sonata decided to show she had a few more vertebrae. She tip-toed (a few more vertebrae) over to the TV and pushed the off button, waiting for some manner of outburst from Adagio. None came. Stepping closer to her, Sonata tried not to let the erratic state of her ordinarily welcoming, fluffy curls get to her. "D...D-Dagi? You okay?"

There was no reply.

Sonata forced a smile, opting to try an old hatchery rhyme to cheer her up. "C-c'mon, Dagi. Swim Swiminey, Swim Swiminey, Swim-Swim-Sweree; a flipper's as lucky, as lucky, can be!"

Adagio continued to sit still for a long minute, perfectly silent, then jumped up. In reflection, mention of swimming may have been what pushed her over the edge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JIts1xIalg

Swim Swiminey, Swim Swiminey, Swim-Swim-Sweree;
Those stupid words never made sense to me!
But after all this time, they fill me with glee,
compared to commericials, it's music to me!

Aria and Sonata spared each other a quick glance before smiling and taking their places behind Adagio, who had begun a dance of emphatic exasperation. The two of them playing back-up singers to her breakdown for as long as it lasted would probably make her feel better.

These damn advertisements, I don't understand,
the ones that made sense, I can count on one hand!
These humans are crazy, how is it they cope?
With magical bald men to sell them their soap?!
(Magical bald men to sell them their soap!)

Since yesterday evening, I had but one plan;
to use television to learn what I can!
This method seemed solid, so I had been sure,
but these advertisements, I cannot endure!

In my quest for power, I've hit a brick wall,
there's nothing to gain from commercials at all!
So much useless knowledge in my head obtrudes,
I already knew places I could find food!
(She already knew places she could find food!)

There's cereal, and burgers, and colorful snacks,
a wonder more people don't have heart attacks!
But that's what they're pushing, all day and all night,
"Stuff your face with this," is the most common sight!

One thousand brand names now stuck in my brain,
Each one is a tumor that causes me pain!
If I see one more talking animal toon,
so help me, I'll punch someone straight to the moon!
(We hope that she won't punch us straight to the moon!)

The last seventeen hours were all for naught,
my rear has gone numb and my eyes are blood-shot!
So many things could have been done with that time,
like learning the fiddle, or organized crime.

I could have gone skiing on a downhill street,
with oil on the road, and snack trays on my feet,
or danced in the town square without any clothes,
and told that damn cop to shove it up his nose!
(She'd tell that damn cop to shove it up his nose!)

To make up for this mess now here's what I'll do;
I'll hunt them all down for what they've put me through!
I'm talking about those who control all these ads,
the corporate fat-cats who sell food and fads!
I'll string them up sideways and tear out their eyes,
the rest of the pain will then come by surprise!
Like when I practice heel-kicks with my spiked shoes,
or when I stuff their mouths full of hooks, nails, and screws!
(You know Dagi, sometimes we worry 'bout you!)

Adagio stood with her shoulders slumped, visibly and audibly tired.

I've spent so much time here, just trying to learn,
how this world we're in works, and what makes it turn.
What is it I'm missing? Are there some magic words?

She scowled, clenching both fists and shouting.

Or do all these people have the brains of birds?!
The words might as well be Swim-Swiminey Sweree!
(Those words all could be Swim-Swiminey Sweree!)

The musical rant complete, Adagio dropped her dance pose, breathed deeply, and turned to look at Aria and Sonata, her eyes still red, but considerably less manic. Without a word, she reached out and pulled the two of them into a hug, which they might have returned, however hesitantly, if not for their arms essentially being pinned as both of their faces were buried in soft fluff over her shoulders. She held them for about ten seconds, then shambled over to the nearest bed, flopping down much like Aria had.

While she was too embarrassed to say it, Sunset had an idea of how Adagio must have felt following her ordeal with television. I only tried for six hours that first time, but still... She wondered if consolatory action would do Adagio any good now, so many years later. Maybe it would be worth trying what the girls had done for her? Hugging did make her feel a little better about some of her struggles when she'd told them, but she couldn't remember how they got her into those positions in a way that it didn't feel forced or awkward. She bet Twilight would know how to do that, but she'd left the book at home.

The eight girls and a few vaguely interested people nearby sat in silence for the better part of a minute before Applejack spoke up. "She has a psychotic episode an' yer solution is to cheerfully join in?"

"Yep," confirmed Aria, "usually works out."

"Except for when it doesn't," amended Sonata.

"Well, yea, but the tree took the fall for us that time." The two of them got some decidedly odd looks. "Don't get me started." And yet more before Aria rolled her eyes. "Look, there aren't enough hours in the day. Just know that that week ended with Adagio feeling better at the cost of a tree coming down."

As it was only a few hours from midnight, what she said was likely true on both accounts.

"It's not much wonder she snapped, is it?" Rainbow looked like she had just watched someone going through root canal. "Seventeen hours of commercials? In the eighties?" She and a few others glanced over to where Adagio was still fiddling with the equipment for Flash's band, though it wasn't clear what she was doing.

Closing the box and looking up with a toss of her hair, she chuckled. "Job's done. You can thank me later." Without another word, she moved to return to her spot by the others, a triumphant little grin on her face.

The members of Flashdrive, however, felt uneasy. Ringo turned to the teal-haired boy. "Y'know, some guys would try to fix it themselves, some would try to replace what was busted, some would just stick it out, come hell or high water. Our guy? Walks up to three magical psychopaths and asks their boss for a favor. Balls of steel, man."

Flash rolled his eyes. "She volunteered, and despite what they did a while back, those three really aren't that scary."

Ringo grinned. "Says the guy who dated She-Demon Shimmer "

"Shut up."

Not interrupting whatever story Sonata was in the middle of, Adagio kept her victorious little smile all the way back to her seat, only a little surprised and annoyed not to hear a word of congratulation from any of the party-goers. That was fine, though, she knew enough about this little game to not directly ask to be acknowledged, that would be-

Sunset Shimmer was whispering to her. "-ounds like everything's working over there. Good job!"

Turning to look her in the eye, Adagio detected no sign of mockery or disingenuousness, Sunset offering a high-five and a little smile. She smiled too, touching her hand to Sunset's for an instant.

In that split-second of contact, Sunset felt a jolt run through her entire body, her heart racing, her skin tingling, and she was pretty sure some of her hair was standing up. Her face burned, Adagio looking back at her in what she dared dream might have been concern.

"Is something wrong?"

Oh, nothing, I just realized that I really must be madly in love with you. Sunset forced a smile. Badly. "I-I, n-no, hi."

Adagio blinked slowly. "...Hi?"

"Hi."

"...Yes, hello."

Aria leaned closer to Adagio. "How many shocks did you get from the fusebox this time?"

Rolling her eyes, Adagio sighed quietly. "Just one."

Aria chuckled, not noticing Sunset's bewildered expression.

Shocks...?

And then it made sense. Adagio had been screwing with electrical equipment before she touched Sunset. While she didn't seem bothered by it, her efforts apparently hadn't been flawless. Feeling like a bigger idiot than at just about any other point in her life, Sunset was grateful the others seemed too wrapped up in Sonata's story to notice her trying to use her own hair as camouflage.

"The plane didn't crash or anything, but that's the only time we ever tried to fly one." She giggled. "They had some questions for us at the landing place, and that's the first time we got strip-sea-"

A red-tinted Aria loudly cut her off. "HEY, I think the band's about ready to play!" The Rainbooms' giggling said she was maybe a second too late. Still, she was saved from any further discussion of that caper by a short boy-band performance.

Author's Notes:

I looked up some 80's commercials. That was the jist of it.

My time spent with act 1 of Changing Tune taught me that if I were to detail everything that happened in a story with actual scenes, not just a few paragraphs of Tell with as much comedic suggestion as I can stuff into them, I'd well and truly never get anywhere with these things.

Chapter 5: Ice Is Slowly Melting

As the applause following Flashdrive's performance concluded, Rainbow turned toward the Dazzlings, particularly Sonata. "I think I heard something earlier about you getting bored by yourself? What do you guys usually do to kill time?"

Rarity almost made the mistake of commenting that they must have had plenty of that since the Battle, but she was sure she wasn't the only one thinking it. Instead, she listened quietly.

Adagio shrugged noncommittally. "Nothing of much interest, really. What about y-"

Pinkie beamed. "Oh, now you totally HAVE to tell us!" A few of the others nodded in agreement. Sunset Shimmer seemed to be hiding her eyes.

Resisting the urge to swear at the predicament she'd just gotten them into, Adagio wore a fairly convincing smile. For her, at least. "We've found all manner of means to pass the time over the years, but none really interested me in particular."

After this, perhaps they'll be just as obligated to share something themselves...

Aria took her cue, pantomiming use of a console controller. "You guys play games at all?"

Pinkie snapped her fingers, drawing a few bills from her skirt pocket and passing them to Fluttershy. Everyone else just stared in perplexed silence as Fluttershy rapidly shook her head. "I-I told you Pinkie, I wasn't serious!"

"A bet's a bet, Flutter-Butter, even if it's just three bucks!" Rarity cleared her throat, which sounded a bit like 'whatcha talkin' 'bout, Pinkie?' She answered accordingly. "I bet Fluttershy that Aria would be into shutting the door and booming beats all day and she said she'd probably be a little more like AJ and Dashie, killing time by pretend-killing tons of dudes sometimes!"

There was a brief, awkward silence as Fluttershy gingerly accepted her meager winnings.

"Anyway," chirped Sonata, nodding to her companions, "I'm not very good, but you should see these two play!"

Aria gave a little smile. Not a smirk, not an I-know-I'm-better-than-you grin, but a smile, if only for a minute. "It started the first time we walked into an arcade..."

To better utilize what their new domain had to offer, the sirens made a habit of going out to explore the area. Not being able to do so by flying above it was a pain in the feet, so they periodically ducked into random buildings to rest. One of their rest-stops was a peculiar place full of TVs set in large boxes, bizarre interior decorating with carpets that might well have been designed by Discord himself, and the smell of pizza thick in the air as what were mostly young men stood before the box-bound TVs.

The trio sat on a bench in silence as they took in the sights and sounds of the place, Aria's curiosity being the first to beat out her fatigue. "I'm gonna go take a look around."

Adagio nodded in silent approval of her underling's willingness to scout... things. Sonata just slumped, resting her head against Adagio's shoulder.

Walking around a little, Aria saw all manner of strange scenes unfolding on the TV screens, none looking anything like what the one in their hotel room had showed them. Blocky men broke blocks with their heads, incomplete circles collected dots in a maze, frogs died trying to cross roads and rivers, and more utterly outlandish scenarios. Truly, Starswirl had sent them to a place of madness. Was it because they were creatures of chaos? Did he think they'd just feel more at home here? Remembrance of what he'd taken from them boiled her blood, she wanted to hit something, she wanted to-

"Hey, uhh," came the voice of a young man in a backward baseball cap, "dunno if you're just sore 'bout somethin', but whack-a-mole's open."

She turned to look at him, lost. "What?"

He shrugged. "You look kinda steamed, girlie, so," offering her what she recognized as a quarter, he indicated a large box with five holes and a mallet on top, "maybe vent there?"

Tentatively accepting the money given without her or the others so much as humming a single tune, she approached the box as instructed. It only took her about thirty seconds to connect that the coin was to be inserted into the red slot marked '25¢' to start the process. She waited, some kind of mechanical music coming from the box as a row of zeroes lit up in red along the back edge of the thing. Before she could ponder their meaning, she was startled by the grinning face of a disfigured ground-rodent! Acting on instinct, she grabbed the mallet and brought it down on the creature's face!

There came a strange noise she couldn't begin to identify as the thing sank back into its hole, a number appearing where the zeroes had been. Trying to guess what it must have meant, Aria was again startled by a mole coming from a different hole! She smashed the hammer (which she noticed now was coated in some kind of foam) on the new hole-mole's head, sending it back to its dark chamber, but then another appeared! She kept swinging, more and more hole-moles jumping up and getting smacked back down. Some came and went before she could smite them, emitting what sounded like tinny laughter. While it was nice that they could be expected to deal with themselves, Aria didn't like being laughed at, and moved her swinging arm as fast as she could to punish as many of the freakish, reappearing faces as possible.

After a minute or two of frantic swinging, it stopped, a number several digits long blinking where the zeroes had been. Once more, she couldn't begin to guess the meaning, but out of a slot adjacent to the coin slot came a string of colorful paper. A new form of currency? How many did they have here? She had just torn it loose for inspection when she heard the sound of applause behind her. Whipping around, she saw the backwards-hat guy and a few others clapping for her, remarking on showing those moles who was boss and getting a pretty good score, whatever that meant.

For a number of reasons, Aria grinned.

"We spent the next few years trying to figure out what that place was about," Aria said with a vague arm motion, "going down to the arcade every so many weeks to figure out what everyone else was doing there without asking the question, had to blend in and all. Eventually we riddled out that it was all just for fun, maybe to win stuff with the tickets if you kept a bunch."

"Even then," offered Sonata, "most of that stuff was like, useless. Kinda funny, but useless."

Aria bit her tongue.

Twirling an orange lock around a finger, Adagio seemed almost abashed. "We didn't spend each and every day going out to feed on negative energy, people might have really started killing each other if we did. So, by the time we'd explored as far as we could reasonably get on foot, we'd realized that singing to those in charge of the hotel every week was slowly draining us of more power than we were getting back, leading us to invest in our own living space."

"And by then," guessed Sunset, "you decided you didn't want to start over in a new town every so often?"

"Part of it was that," Adagio answered with a nod, "part of it was not wishing to stray too far from the park we first landed in. For the first decade or so, we were convinced that if we were ever going to get home, the means to do so would be around here somewhere."

The Rainbooms collectively shared a panicked look, immediately realizing that the Dazzlings could still see them. They slowly turned as one, worry clear in all six sets of eyes..

The three collectively gave the six a tired look, Adagio the first to speak. "Oh, dear," she said in a dry monotone while crossing her arms, "I suppose you all must know a way we could have gotten back to Equestria. When we still had our magic. When it might have mattered. And doesn't anymore."

There was a long silence.

Rainbow scratched the back of her head. "You're not even gonna ask?"

Sonata let out a half-hearted giggle. "Nah."

"We were banished," Aria offered with a shrug, "even if we're able to go back at all, there's no guarantee we'd be allowed to roam free. Plus, it's been like thirty years, anything we'd have had over there is gone now. Not wanting to start over, remember?"

With the Rainbooms collectively stunned at this little revelation and the Dazzlings having nothing further to offer on the matter, neither group said anything.

Sunset was aware of perhaps a little more of the Dazzlings' situation than they were. She had learned from Twilight that over in Equestria, the time since their departure and her own had been a lot longer than thirty years, but she didn't have the heart to share that information. Not now, hopefully not ever.

They don't plan to go back anyway, right?

Then again, with the way they talked back when they first arrived and given that they'd lived here long enough to hear of the archaic vernacular used in much older works, maybe they already knew. Sunset couldn't decide if that was more or less tragic.

All nine girls were quiet, a heavy sense of dread rolling outwards onto other party guests, more and more of whom stopped what they were doing to witness the tense scene in the middle of the room. It wasn't quite silent, but definitely much quieter, the air a little thicker than it had been a minute ago.

Not noticing this just yet, Fluttershy smiled at the three Equestrian fugitives. "W-well, whatever it's worth, you're all more than welcome in this world now," she glanced around at her nearby friends, "right?"

As usual, Pinkie was the first to smile. "Yea! As long as all that-" she made the appropriate pantomimes, "-woosh-bang-zappy laser stuff is done, we're super-psyched to have you guys!"

Rainbow chuckled. "Heck, even that wouldn't be-" Applejack lightly pushed her head down before she could risk opening old wounds by implying anyone enjoyed fighting with anyone else, "-wouldn't be near as nice as just havin' yall around."

"Hear, hear," concurred Rarity with a smile, immediately joined by a voice across the room.

"Trixie also doesn't mind their presence!" Her arms were crossed and her chin was haughtily raised, but she was unmistakably smiling.

Flash Sentry was giving them a thumbs-up and a grin, Ringo nodding a little as the teal-haired boy smiled in kind, though he did so while standing partly behind Flash.

Others announced similar sentiments.

"You guys tell a neat story!"
"Can ya tell the pool one again?"
Smack!
"Feel free to swing by CHS some time!"

Voices not directly aimed at the trio were a little quieter.

"The siren gals are pretty chill now, I guess."
"They're so cute!"
"And apparently not evil anymore!"
"Yea! That's kinda important."
"Guess they pulled a Shimmer after all."

Hearing this, the Dazzlings looked around the room in quiet surprise. Sharing quick, unsure glances, they hesitantly smiled, not sure if this meant the plan was working, or if not being hated as they'd first assumed they'd be was just an added bonus.

Even with the variety of happy expressions going around as people got back to chatting ordinarily, no one in the room was smiling wider than Sunset Shimmer. Just as she'd hoped, the Dazzlings making themselves scarce for a good, long while after their attack, where she didn't, made a lot of difference for the other kids in terms of cool-down time.

Probably helps that those three didn't torment anyone for ye-

Now was no time to think about that, the Dazzlings were in! Next, she just had to see them form real bonds with someone and they'd be set!

Any of them getting a little closer to Sunset herself would be nice, actually, it didn't really feel like she could say they were friends yet. Maybe it wouldn't happen tonight, but there'd be time to do more than hope it did later.

"So," Pinkie picked up, "do you guys still play? A lotta stuff's changed since the arcade days."

"Yea," answered Aria with a chuckle, "no kidding. You didn't see a lotta hundred-hour-long eastern RPGs back then."

Sonata clasped her hands together and smiled. "I like those!"

Aria stage-whispered to the girls sitting across from them. "They're the only ones she's good at."

Sonata weakly shoved her. "The stories are worth sticking around for! Besides, We can't all be like you and Dagi, or there'd be nobody to be everybody else!"

Ignoring the nonsensical sentiment, Rainbow smiled, looking particularly at Adagio. "Wouldn't have pegged you for a pro."

Snapping out of thoughts of how easily the Rainbooms were getting her cohorts friends to talk and how that could be reversed, Adagio blinked twice, trying not to blush as it was clear she'd been caught off-guard. "Sorry, what?"

Aria's arms were crossed, but she wore what might have been a prideful smirk while nodding to Adagio. "You're looking at the girl who beat Superior Primate Spheres 2 in one sitting."

Pinkie was the only one who seemed to recognize that title, recalling its' increasingly obnoxious difficulty. "One sitting?!"

"Oh, that." Adagio shrugged. "Half the time all I had to do was accelerate straight ahead, and sometimes the environmental hazards batted me straight to the goal-post."

Sonata tilted her head. "Yea, but you missed a LOT of bananas."

"Woe is me," deadpanned Adagio, "banana-less."

"Poor hungry monkeys." Frowning, she tried to remember that they were only virtual monkeys, and were only virtually starving to death in the face of their leader's cold indifference to virtual banana shortages.

Applejack chuckled, nudging Rainbow. "Lookit that, someone who can win without showboatin' about it."

"Pfft," retorted Rainbow with her usual eloquence, "yea, right now, bet it's a way different story right after she wins at something."

At this, the Dazzlings slowly turned to look at each other, Sunset sure they were reaching some kind of quiet, split-second consensus.

Huh. How long will it be before I know someone well enough to do that?

Adagio shook her head a little, turning back to answer Rainbow in a calm monotone.

Just say it. You have nothing to lose.

"Would you believe that 'winning' doesn't interest us in the slightest? That it never did? It's the not the show, not the title, not even a mark in history we ever pursued, it was the applause that came with it. What we did to your school had nothing to do with any kind of victory, per se, it was for the sake of being recognized, of being adored. I suppose our first song may have painted a different picture, but we'd have said, sang, anything to reach that end."

Aria and Sonata only offered affirmative nods.

Rarity frowned a little. "You surely realize that there's a difference between lauded with praise and forcing it out of people?"

Raising an eyebrow, some measure of feeling (annoyance) returned to Adagio's voice. "Is there? People offer such sentiments when they feel something warrants it, the same is true of most any response. I should hope it needs no explaining that reaction does not occur without an initial action? If someone thanks you for offering them an umbrella in the rain, did you force them to do so?"

Sunset Shimmer didn't force us to talk the other day, I just don't know how she coaxed that reaction.

"Our manipulations were just that; manipulation, never absolute control."

Speaking up just loudly enough to be heard, Fluttershy looked surprised. "Is that really what you were doing? I-I thought it was your spell that got everyone to fight."

"Technically true," Adagio said with a soft sigh, "I don't know how you think our magic used to work, but we never influenced anyone's behavior to do what they'd have never done otherwise. Every argument, every harsh word, every thrown punch, every clapping pair of hands... all of it was there before they heard us sing. Our voices, in performance just as much as in inhibition-nullifying magic, just brought it all to the surface."

"Wait a tic," interjected Applejack, "Ah thought y'all brain-washed them hotel people to let'cha stay?"

Now there was a little smile. "In part. After everyone involved with that building had seen Sonata's routine," said siren smiled proudly, "they had at least a small desire to let her, and consequently all three of us, live there free of charge. Preying on that and composing a stanza to bring it out, it wasn't long before all we had to do was hum the tune from week to week." That they weren't bringing in enough negative energy to even break even with humming was a shame that didn't need voicing at the time.

Aria shrugged. "For anyone we'd sung to recently, just holding a note was usually enough to warm up the spell again, as long as the feeling we were banking on was still there." The little song they threw together to snare the sisters in charge of CHS played on how much they wanted to do something good for the student body and some very sneakily-worded lyrics.

Crossing her arms, Adagio's smile faded. "Think about it, if all we had to do was sing to outright control people, would it have made sense to do more than let out a few notes of-" she sing-songed for effect, "'hey eve-ry-one, ar-gue~!' and immediately reap the rewards?"

She waited, practically able to hear the dismissals and denials already, the assertions that no, none of them would ever be so vitriolic, so susceptible to being so unpleasant on their own, proof that the Anon-a-Miss incident was already forgotten. None came. The Rainbooms frowned, trading glances and apologetic looks, (Sunset Shimmer just looked worried) but not a word of against any of her assertions was spoken.

"Well," Applejack said ruefully, "Ah reckon that makes sense."

The Dazzlings collectively blinked twice, Sonata the only one to reply verbally. "For realzies?"

Pinkie pouted a little. "Your songs didn't affect us, but we argued anyway, right?" She scratched her head, a candy cane falling out of her hair as she did so. "Why didn't it work on us, anyway?"

Aria shrugged. "If we knew that, don't you think we'd have tried to find a way around it?"

Something in Adagio wasn't satisfied, making her push a button a little harder than before. "They did start fighting, as I recall," she pondered aloud, taking up a thoughtful pose with a hand on her chin, "but that they could snap out of it, as no one else did, means we were never in complete-no, actually, I don't know if even that much was us." Her tone neutral, she tilted her head while looking over the Rainbooms as a whole. "Does that summarize it well enough? We got more power out of you girls than the entire rest of the school combined, not through force, but just what you had to offer at your worst."

To the Dazzlings' collective shock, the first reply was not indignant outrage, not contrition or signs of self-hatred, but a chuckle from Applejack. "Yea, we were pretty rotten."

Rainbow playfully nudged her, smirking. "Thanks."

Pinkie giggled. "We were kinda a gaggle of grumps, huh?"

Judging by her amused grin, not even Rarity was upset. "Ohh, dreadfully so."

"I-in fact," offered Fluttershy, whose giggles said she was over it too, "I think the only ones who didn't get angry were Twilight and Sunset."

The newest Rainboom smiled proudly. "And it's all in the past now. Doesn't do any good to dwell, right?"

Affirmative nods and little exclamations of agreement only baffled Adagio further, unable to grasp how the group could be so calm about having their failure rubbed in their faces... Maybe because they got what they wanted in the end? Was there a formula to it? She felt lost, not seeing any sign that Aria or Sonata understood any better.

Once the group's giggles died down, Rainbow looked at the Dazzlings and smiled. "So, what else do you guys do for fun?"

Sonata was the first to recover, smiling. "I like Japanese cartoons!"

Searching her memory, Sunset scratched her head. "The stuff with the spiky hair and giant robots?"

Fluttershy shivered lightly. "Oh, those can get so... v-violent..." Rarity gently pat her on the shoulder, certain the scars would heal some day.

Giggling, Sonata nodded. "Yep, it gets pretty wacky sometimes, but not all of it is really weird!"

This time, Aria didn't stop herself, smirking only a little bit. "You would know."

Sonata put her hands on her hips, making a less-than-emphatic scowl. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Aria leaned over to whisper in her ear. "I've seen the room, Sonata."

The blue girl paled, forcing a wide, sheepish smile as the rest of those seated nearby gave her curious looks. "Ah, w-well, I could go for some punch, anybody else? No? 'Kay, great, bye!" And off she went to the punch bowl. She didn't know where that was, specifically, but how hard could it be to find?

This left eight girls in awkward silence until Pinkie stood up too. "Aaaaalrighty! I think we've all been sitting around long enough, this is a party! So let's paaaaaaar-" She vanished in a burst of light and confetti. Trixie glanced in the group's direction from across the room and nodded approvingly, though it was hard to gauge if anyone really noticed.

This left seven girls in awkward silence until Applejack scratched her chin. "Ah think Ah get it. Confetti. Par, confet-TI. Par-ty."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, smiling. "Don't explain the joke. C'mon, let's go see if Thunderlane managed to get out of babysitting duty after all." She and Applejack stood up, looking at Aria and Adagio. "Great talking to you guys, seeya around!"

Rarity giggled. "Suppose we really should be spreading out a bit." She looked straight at Adagio and smiled just a little wider than seemed necessary. "Would you mind accompanying me for a little while? There's something I'd like to show you."

Still faintly dazed by the reaction she got moments ago, Adagio stared numbly back at her for a few seconds. "...What?"

"I'm asking you to come with me for a spe-I mean-short time." She clasped her hands, face hopeful. "I think you'll like it!"

Glancing to Aria and Sonata and only finding one of them, Adagio's brain finally caught up with the situation. Most importantly, she remembered the plan and nodded, getting to her feet. "Um, yes, certainly. Where?"

Quickly standing up, Rarity seized Adagio by a wrist and gently pulled her along, grinning brightly. "Right this way, please!"

There was only a split second of eye-contact between Aria and Adagio, but by the little hint of panic in her eyes, Aria got the impression their leader was ad-libbing again. Not that she blamed her, something was off about these girls, which was why she didn't want to be left alone against two of them. She stood up. "Well, guess I'll wander a bit too, talk to people, make sure Sonata's not setting the place on fire, that kinda thing."

Despite her rapidly snowballing worries about the odds of disaster with the Dazzlings splitting up and covering more ground, Sunset smiled. "Enjoy the party!"

I'll just have to move around and keep an eye on them, make sure nothing happens.

Standing up the moment Aria was out of sight, she turned to look at Fluttershy. "Will you be okay here by your-"

She was gone. Glancing around with a hint of a sheepish smile, Sunset silently hoped nobody saw her talking to herself, stood up, and walked off to see if she could find where Rarity went with Adagio. Or if Sonata found the punch bowl. Or, whatever Aria might be getting up to.

This, might be a long night.

Author's Notes:

Gamer Aria might be a little overdone, but it just fits too well. Mass head-canons exist for a reason, I guess!

On that note, I hate it when I have to establish a detail in a story only for the full significance not to pay off until much later. HATE.

But that's still what happened here, a bit.

Chapter 6: You Know You Should Be Glad

Rarity had brought Adagio to a room upstairs. "I simply can't tell you how happy I am to have all that 'Battle' business behind us!"

Adagio, coming out of her confusion-induced daze, just nodded as she looked around the room. There were three wardrobe cabinets along one wall, along with four dressers stacked in 2x2 rows, the legs of the upper dressers apparently sawn off to fit better on the bottom row, and possibly nailed in place. In the corner of the room was a divider, likely for privacy.

Is she going to show me outfits for the next hour or so? Her shoe collection? Perhaps her own tailoring?

Smiling, Rarity went on. "It was your name that first got my attention, you know. Dazzle! I think we may have a little in common, you and I..."

Ordinarily, finding herself alone with a former(?) enemy in their own home would be the point that Adagio initiated the first strike, but there was no hostility whatsoever in Rarity's tone, face, or body language, like she was already comfortable around someone that once might have made her just one more thrall. The effect was unsettling, but she managed a question without any hostility herself. "What would that be, specifically?"

"Style, Darling! While it's generally unwise to judge solely by appearances, I can tell by looking at you that you have a knack for the aesthetic." That this won a tiny grin from Adagio said she was already making progress! "As such, I was wondering if I could get your opinion on a few outfits I've put together recently."

Easy enough, even if I weren't playing along.

"Certainly."

Moving toward one of the cabinets, Rarity lit up. "Excellent! Now, you may wish to take a step back." Seeing Adagio take two, Rarity noted her inclination toward safety and opened the cabinet, a long rack of clothes on hangers immediately springing from the wall. Pinkie Pie had helped to assemble it. "See anything that jumps out at you, Darling?" She couldn't help a bigger smile at the siren's perplexed expression.

"Would it be disingenuous to say 'everything at once'?"

Giggling, Rarity stepped away from the extendable wall-rack. "Come have a look, and please, take your time."

Playing through, Adagio did what she was asked, inspecting the various articles of clothing. Rarity really had quite a range here, from dainty dresses, to practical wear, to what were likely form-fitting garments, to some rather daring articles as well, depending on the wearer's figure. Hung very close to each other, a sleek, black top and velvety, blue, ankle-length skirt caught her atten-

Click!

She didn't dare turn around. "Was that the door locking?"

"I just don't want anyone interrupting, Darling. You know how hard it can be to maintain artistic focus with people just waltzing in and breaking concentration, right?"

Adagio peered over her shoulder, relieved that the host of the evening at least didn't appear to be armed. "I suppose."
Now she's coming closer. I don't like that twinkle in her eyes...

Pacing toward her with a relatively regretful smile, Rarity kept her gaze locked on Adagio. "I, er, I'm afraid I might not have been entirely honest with you, with my reason for bringing you here..."

Here it comes, thought Adagio as she turned to face her. "And...?"

"Well, there's just this, thing I've been wanting to do for a while now. With you, if it's not too much to ask."

Knowing she'd have to cooperate with whatever Rarity asked or risk compromising the plan, Adagio felt beads of sweat form on her brow. "Y-yes?"

"May I, if you'll permit it...?" Her eyes were wide and full of longing, as though she'd waited years for something.

Don'trundon'trundon'trundon'trundon'trundon'trun! "What is it?"

"I, I-I promise to be gentle, but, perhaps, just once, may I..." Rarity beamed, holding up a brush, "style your hair?!"

"...What?"

Giggling like a schoolgirl, Rarity stepped around to admire the untamed fluff from multiple angles. "It's just so lush and voluminous, there's so much that could be done with it all!" She stopped in front of Adagio to make a doe-eyed expression. "If you don't mind, I mean?"

Oh. Clamping down on the tiny tinge of disappointment, Adagio shrugged. "Sure."

And for another moment, Rarity knew only joy. "Ohhh, thank you so much! If you'd like, we can even do a full makeover! The hair would have to wait until after an outfit was selected, or we'd likely risk undoing the effort of-"

Rarity went on, but Adagio took the time to analyze what had just happened. As this felt very reasonable compared to her first guess for Rarity's intentions with taking her to a secluded room, Adagio probably would have accepted out of that alone, nevermind the plan.

Did she do that on purpose? Let me think she wanted something else before making her real request, the contrast between an extreme order and a small one making it easier to lean toward the one she was really after?

Adagio would have noted this as a possible means the Rainbooms used to get what they wanted, but she kind of knew this trick already. The tone of voice suggested Rarity had just asked a question, snapping Adagio back to attention.

"Certainly." The plan did a lot to cut down her decision-making time.

"Excellent! Let's start with these pants, I've got a good feeling that they'll highlight your figure nicely!"

Taking the black, shiny pair of pants she was offered, Adagio moved toward the divider while Rarity looked for a suitable top. She'd have stripped and changed where she stood, but didn't really feel like finding out whether or not the concept of modesty was mainly a measure to prevent spontaneous tackles. Perhaps that policeman had actually been doing her a favor all these years? On that note, her primary thought while getting changed was the hope that Aria and Sonata weren't being obligated to do anything they'd regret later.

Wringing her hands not unlike how she wished Adagio would when going over her evil schemes, Sonata stood before the snack table with her biggest, widest, toothiest grin. That was another thing she kind of wished Adagio would do, not just the- well, that didn't matter now. She looked over the contents of the table, particularly the punch bowl.

Hohohohoho, yes, the time has come!

Quickly, subtly, she scanned her immediate surroundings. No one was looking. No one would suspect a thing.

Reaching into her shirt, Sonata carefully maneuvered her hand just under her breasts to seize the shiny, silver flask of precious liquid hidden there. Before she could draw it, however, she was startled from behind.

"Hi, Sonata!"

Letting out a frightened squeak, she about-faced, hand still down her own shirt, which Pinkie Pie immediately noticed.

"Um-"

"Yea, hi!" Sonata's grin was still wide, but now it was a little nervous. "Don't mind me, just fondling myself in public! Haha!" To back her story up, she quickly and emphatically began shifting her breasts around with both hands, hoping the flask wouldn't fall out of her shirt as she did. She turned increasingly red as Pinkie (and a few other people) stared at this for the next thirty seconds.

Pinkie noticed more and more people starting to turn their heads to witness the one-girl boob-grabbing show, so she whispered. "I think they're good and shuffled now."

Painfully self-conscious, Sonata let her hands fall to her sides. "Heh, r-right."

Waiting until people more or less went back to their own business, Pinkie gave Sonata a smile. "So, why were you about to add booze to the punch?"

GAH!!

There would be time later to slam her own head in a door for having embarrassed herself for nothing, but for now Sonata had an alibi to fake on the spot. "I-I wasn't, I mean, I was just, just," sweating wasn't helping, "I, uh, just, really like punch, so much that it makes me want to touch my own-"

"Sonata?" Pinkie was still smiling at her, but her eyes said 'It's going to hurt my feelings if you keep lying to me.' "It's okay that you like your drinks, but it's possible somebody here doesn't, and I think just about everyone at the party is underage. It wouldn't be fun if someone that didn't want to get drunk drank a drunkening drink, y'know?"

Hanging her head, Sonata frowned. "I-I'm sorry, I just kinda thought it'd-" She was cut off with a hug.

"It might be fun for a little while, but let's let everyone have a choice in whether or not they wake up with a huuuuge headache in the morning, okay?"

Strangely, Sonata found herself smiling as she gently returned the hug. "Okay!"

A minute later, Pinkie took a step back, her smile much cheerier. "So no spiking anything, okie-dokie?"

The statement was closed with a friendly wink, making Sonata giggle. "Yea, yea, I'll be good. Where'd you learn about this stuff, anyway?"

Pinkie beamed. "I'm a responsible partier! How about you?"

"I'm more of a... partying, partier?"

"No, silly," replied Pinkie with a giggle, "where'd you first pick up the Twenty-One-And-Over?"

"I didn't, but I did pick up drinking back in... Umm..." She quickly entered the combination and threw open the door to the vault of her memory, shuffling through several big ol' stacks of imaginary paper to find what she was looking for. "I think our first time with beer and stuff came about a week after we first wandered into a bar, which was about a day after our first time with fake IDs." Sonata smiled, "It was pretty fun!" and then she frowned. "at least until the second time, because that's when we learned what hangovers were. Dagi was totally all 'Never-a-goddamn-gain!' about it, so she rarely drinks at all."

Pinkie grinned expectantly. "But when she does...?" To her slight surprise, Sonata shrugged, delivering her answer with a straight face.

"It's never much more than a glass or two of some kinda wine. It's sorta like how she doesn't watch TV a lot either, since, y'know..."

"Oh, yea!" Pinkie couldn't help a tiny giggle at Past Adagio's expense. "What about you and Aria?"

"Depends if there's anything good on."

"True dat. And with beer?"

Sonata grinned widely. "Wellll, there was the New Millennium party..."

December 31st, 1999, Canterlot City Square

The residents of this world had set up a party like they were expecting it to end, which might have been appropriate, because some of them really were. Those people were separate from the scene in which Aria and Sonata found themselves. Tables loaded up with food and drinks of all kinds encircled the area as night fell, more and more people showing up for the celebration of the millennium with all manner of stands and shops being set up to capitalize on the fever of noise and liquor that made people just a little more willing to part with their hard-earned money. Adagio was nowhere near this spectacle, instead having decided to take a train a few towns over. She had explained to her followers that she would be whipping those who were more fearful and paranoid of the turning of the century into a frenzy to feast on, but as none of them wanted to put up with the aftermath of a riot where they lived, she would do it where the fallout wouldn't bother them later.

Yea, uh... D-did I mention we used to be pretty evil? Sorry about that.

It's okay now, Nata. Why were you guys at the party while she was out eating meanness?

Well-

Recent months had left their leader in an exceedingly good mood, and while she had long since sworn off heavy drinking herself, she wouldn't stop Aria and Sonata from getting plastered if they so wished, and left them to enjoy the party back home. Bundled up in their winter clothes against the cold, Aria and Sonata casually wandered through the area, not sure where to begin.

"I'm so excited," Sonata said with a grin while her eyes eagerly traced over the various stands and tables of free food and drink, "I just wish Dagi were here to keep track!"

Aria, as was usually the case when she had only Sonata for company, rolled her eyes. "If you mean to keep score for who chugs more without barfing it all back up, it wouldn't make a difference."

"Would too! We need somebody sober to be sure!"

"I told you before, she lies about the results just so you'll shut up."

Sonata shot her a challenging smirk. "You just say that because you keep losing." The sudden scowl said Aria was taking the bait, which was nice, because drinking alone kind of sucked.

Maintaining her annoyed expression as she scanned the nearby tables, Aria locked on to a long one covered in red cups. The sight wasn't entirely a welcome one, but somehow it was fitting. I still need to reclaim my honor from that stupid frat party. She stopped by the table, grabbed a cup, and raised it meaningfully as Sonata did the same. "This time we settle the score," Aria said very seriously, "winner take all, no more of your stupid little contests after this, got it?"

Sonata giggled almost deviously. "Sounds like you're giving up already!"

Aria shot back with a little smirk. "Shut up and drink."

They did, but Sonata didn't lose her smile. She knew something Aria didn't.

They had downed maybe five cups apiece when a piercing noise seized their attention. The two turned in unison to see the karaoke stand about twenty meters away, a middle-aged man in a glittery, green, disco-fever suit and stupid toupee clutching a mic as he vomited noise into it.

As their eyes met, the two sirens knew what they had to do.

The area was well-lit by strategically-directed bulbs and webs of seasonal lights, but there was still no need for the sunglasses Sonata donned out of nowhere. "Let's roll."

They were only a little buzzed, so walking over was no challenge. A little blur made the lights look cooler anyway! When they were close, Aria put a hand on the singer's shoulder.

"Hey there Mister Disco Man, I think we'll take it from here," she nodded to Sonata, "that bitch and I got a plan, so why don't you grab a beer?"

With the man dozily wandering off to get even more drunk like a good little song-slave, Sonata grabbed the mic. "It's the biggest party in town, so ev'ryone listen up, New Year's comin' around so if you ain't driving, grab a cup!"

They sang together as people around reached for the nearest drinks.

"Drink up, drink up, drink up, just grab a beer!
Time to chug a lug and dance!
Of course, we know, it's way too cold out here!
So don't take off your pants!"

Ad-libbing on the spot deducted a certain amount of eloquence from the lyrics. More-so when they'd had a few. Still, the two of them led an increasingly intoxicated crowd to amble about and mutter vaguely in rhythm with the six or seven (they kind of started singing two separate tunes at once toward the end as their focus waned) songs they performed, so it still felt like some kind of win.

Later, after strolling away from the mass of howling, disorganized drunk people and grabbing a few more drinks when they grew bored, Aria and Sonata stood by an exotic candy stand. It was nice that, even when a little tipsy, they only needed to exert minimal effort to convince the man offering a selection of strange, sugary snacks to give them free reign while he got his face painted over by the kiddie area.

Following half a jar of tangy sugar-ball things, Sonata picked up one of the eight types of candy on a stick, popping the sweet end into her mouth before patting herself down. "Ah, shoot. Hey Aria, you got a light?"

Chewing the head off a chocolate statuette, Aria rolled her eyes. "You don' schmoke, 'member?" There was something else wrong with the situation, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Luckily, tiny, chocolate people was thinkin' food. Especially the heads!

"Pfft," scoffed Sonata, the treat still in her mouth, "whatever, still a party." Lacking a lighter, Sonata looked around for anything else she could use, settling for leaning close to a nearby candle to ignite the end of her candy-stick. Then her cheeks puffed out and she started to turn red.

Aria raised an eyebrow. "What'reya doin', stupid? You don't have the... the uh..." She snapped her fingers a few times to jog her memory. "The, skin-pointies you need to be a pufferfish."

"Blowin' smoke rings," Sonata said around the slowly-smoldering treat, "Jus' need to..." Her cheeks puffed out a little further as she blew harder on the filter-free stick. When she tried to open her lips to suck in a little extra air, the stick fired across the plaza like a burning arrow, popping a balloon somewhere.

For a moment, the two were silent. Then, Aria looked at Sonata. "Bet I can shoot one further."

"You're on!"

The contest somehow ended with the candy on sticks and the chocolate figures being combined to make a sticky forest of the impaled on that table. People still picked them up and ate them as though nothing was amiss, so it was difficult to say whether or not the two sirens had a future in the candy-making business. More drinks were had.

Not long after, Aria sprinted(quickly stumbled) from place to place, ducking behind the pretzel stand as she kept blurry watch for any sign of blue stupidness. In her hands was a bright, colorful chunk of plastic fashioned into a weapon; a super-soaker, they called it. Aria would be victorious! She heard footsteps around the corner, and opting to make the first move, she staggered out and fired!

It was just some fat guy. Oh, well.

Hitting the deck, Aria rolled under a bench, feeling quite dizzy when she came to a stop. "Dammit, S'nota," she murmured, "we called no brain-scramblers!"

"Yea, yea," muttered Sonata while slouching on that very bench, "didn't even s'hee any fryin' pansh."

A moment later, it sunk in that they had each other right where they wanted them! Sonata leapt up to stand on the bench while pointing her two water pistols down at Aria (as well as the floor around her), who had rolled over onto her back to point the super-soaker back at her.

"S'ho," intoned Sonata, "thish izzit. I always'h knew it'd end this'h way fer us: Me, lookin' down at you."

Aria's eyes narrowed. "I can see up your skirt."

Sonata glared back at her, and for a long minute, they held each other's stares, weapons trained. They squeezed the triggers!

...Um... Nata?

Hang on, tryin' to remember how it wen-Oh, now I remember!

Neither of them got wet even as both furiously tried to fire their weapons. After about a minute of quiet ponderment, they deduced that this was because neither of their weapons were loaded, they'd just picked them up off a table somewhere and started trying to blast each other. Giggling in a manner not uncommonly seen in a pair of drunken dolts, they moved to take seats on the bench together while watching a big screen not too far away, singing the numbers as the big clock counted down to the new millenium. When the pretty fireworks died down and they'd recovered their energy, the two smiled at each other, filled their water guns with liquor, and ran around spraying random people.

Much later that night (or early that morning), Aria and Sonata lay sprawled out on the living room carpet of the house they and Adagio shared, which they thankfully made their way back to without too much incident. There must have been some incident, because neither could remember why they were wearing striped, thigh-high socks over their shoes, but they still made it. It was while Sonata quietly rolled around in a dreamy daze that she heard the front door open, their teetotal leader stepping in.

The air around Adagio crackled with dark energy as her eyes glowed a vibrant green, hair shifting and twitching of its own accord. She left the city in absolute chaos, but the feast had gone very well, improving her spirits further as she looked over her two hopelessly drunk followers with a smirk of amusement. "Guess they had a good time," she said quietly so as not to rouse them, "and so much the better."

With all the power she'd absorbed that night, the way back home was surely within their reach! It was still a pale imitation of what she could have harnessed in Equestria, but with careful focus, perhaps they could finally find the way back, and when the three of them returned, they'd be able to siphon more power in a day than everything they'd ever absorbed in their decade and a half (give or take) in this world! And it would start when she shared the energy gathered with Aria and Sonata in the morning.

Looking over them again, she couldn't help a little smile.

Well, maybe it would be better to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

"So," Sonata concluded with a little grin, "that was pretty much how that went."

Pinkie was smiling too. "What happened with all the angries Dagi sucked up?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh..." Sonata's smile slipped away. "Well, we spent a long time looking for a way back to Equestria with it. Y'see, every couple of years or so, we could feel something change in this town, like a hole had been poked in a blanket. Dagi was sure that it had to be Equestrian magic, but we could never find the source before it stopped. We'd kinda hoped that, with all that extra power to pour into searching, we'd sense the way home lickety-split and be back to what we were before. Like half a year later of going out and looking everywhere, every day, we couldn't find anything..." Frowning, Sonata shrugged. "That was what eventually washed away Dagi's good mood, and ours too."

For just a moment, Pinkie frowned too, but she had an idea! "Well, what made her so happy in the first place?"

"Uhh..." In the effort of trying to recall the specific events, Sonata made a scrunchy face. "Y'know, I'm not sure now. I bet Aria would remember."

"Was it the thing you knew that she didn't know?"

Blinking once, Sonata giggled. "Nah, that thing was just that 'This'll be the last time!' is what Aria says almost every time, then she gets too hammered to remember a thing! Then again," she said with a slightly abashed smile, "so do I. I haven't been sure which one of us has been winning in the last twenty years!"

Pinkie let out a snorty giggle. "S-sounds like a great competition to me!"

Aria was starting to get annoyed. This house wasn't all that big, but there were a LOT of people here! What annoyed her about that was that none of them seemed to be the two she was looking for, as Sonata and Adagio were nowhere to be found!

What, did they ditch me or something? Sonata might have gotten distracted and wandered off, but Adagio would never skip out on her own plan without at least letting us know it was off, so where-oh, there's Sonata.

She was talking to the pink one over by the punch bowl in a room Aria wasn't sure she'd actually gone into yet. In hindsight, she kind of figured she should have looked there first. Making her way over, Aria was stopped by a one of the white-haired blue girls that had messed with the Rainbooms during the Battle; the one that wore crazy glasses.

"You," she spoke, "you, are, de one!"

Aria took a step backward. "What?"

"DE ONE," she declared, "De one I haff seen all those years ago! the face of Canterlot fashion of another time!"

A cold chill ran along the siren's spine as she forced an innocent smile. "No clue what you're talkin' about, now if you'd just lemme-"

Photo Finish, an increasingly wide smile crossing her face, nodded twice. "I am suuuure of it! Your hair, your eyes," she leaned over to get a look at Aria's back, "your shapely buttocks, there can be no doubt that you are the spitting image of the one on the cover of that magazine that inspired me as a tiny girl!" She slowly waved an arm in the air, speaking in a passionate breath. "'Be beautiful no matter what happens!'"

Aria's eyes shrunk to pinpricks. She's seen that?!

The young shutterbug went on. "That was the tagline that made me into who I am today! And you, the bearer of standard of that era, are De One I now ask to complete the circle, to model for me, to let me make! You! A Starrrr!"

The last syllable was dragged longer than necessary, but Aria's response was the same as she started to sweat. Without thinking, she grabbed Photo Finish by the collar, tripped her, and planted her head between the cushions of a nearby couch before running away. This raised a few eyebrows around the room after she'd gone, Photo Finish popping her head out of the couch with a perplexed look on her face.

"So... That is a 'no'?"

Aria ducked into the first empty room she saw, nearly slamming the door before leaning up against it in the hope of holding it shut if she'd been seen going in. Silence. If she was lucky, she'd escaped and nobody even saw what she did. If she was unlucky, she needed to come up with something to tell Adagio, fast.

Lessee, "She was asking me to be a model again, so I stuffed her face into the couch"? Not a great defense. "You know how I feel about that stuff, and a girl's gotta have her limits"? Better. "I'm sure Sunset and the others totally won't mind, I mean, I could have smacked her head into the china cabinet instead, right?"? Dunno about that one, what abou-

"Hello there."

Aria jumped a foot in the air, whirling around to see Yellow Quiet sitting in a big, cushy chair. There were a few other such chairs in this tiny room, all arranged in a little circle around a small coffee table, but nobody else was present. Trying not to blush, Aria opted to pretend that she wasn't just startled by the school scaredy-cat. "Uh, yea, hi, what's up? What're you doing in here by yourself?"

Eyes widening for a split second, Fluttershy looked down at her hands, which she kept folded in her lap. "I, uhm, s-sometimes I just like to be somewhere quiet for a while, s-so, I mean, this room is... usually... quiet?"

When those big, soft doe-eyes looked back up at her, Aria almost felt like she was being asked a question. 'You're not going to make it not quiet anymore, are you?' or something like that. Photography Glasses was grey area, but they were supposed to be getting along with these girls, so Aria played it peaceful by holding up a hand and keeping her voice down. "I'm just hiding out for a bit, same as you. I think." That seemed to do the trick, because Stage Fright started to smile.

"I see. Then, w-would you like to take a seat and rest a while?" She gestured to the other, big, cushy chairs. "There's plenty of room here, so..."

Nodding once, Aria walked over and sat down. In a room with just one of the Rainbooms. Alone.

Aria Blaze, you are a genius!

Well, winding up like this was kind of a happy accident, but still one she could probably get some of those precious manipulation secrets out of. Somehow. "So," she began, "name's Aria Blaze if you didn't know already. How about you?"

She smiled. "Oh, um, I-I'm F-Flutttershy, and, it's nice to meet you."

Aria raised an eyebrow. "With or without that extra 'F'?"

Making a surprised face, Fluttershy blushed before looking down again. "Um... w-without, please..."

Chuckling, Aria fought the urge to tear into this girl. The reaction would probably be gold, but there'd be trouble for it later. "Right. So what are you hiding from out there? Just noise in general?"

Smiling almost apologetically, Fluttershy nodded. "S-something like that, y-yes." It would be extremely difficult to say that part of the reason she hid in here was a fear of running into certain people by herself, more-so to say that Aria was precisely one of those people, but it felt like things were going fairly well so far. "If you don't mind my asking, um... What ab-"

"Me? Just wanted to get away from little miss Stalker-Waiting-To-Happen out there, the weirdo that carries cameras everywhere."

"Photo Finish?" Fluttershy gave the door a worried look. "I, I think I can understand that..."

Intrigued, Aria raised an eyebrow. "Really? What'd she do to you? Get up in your face with the flash on? Upskirt? Get a picture of you in the shower, all soaped up and-"

Fluttershy blushed furiously. "N-N-NO!!" As Aria snickered at her discomfort, Fluttershy sought refuge in her own hair, but to her surprise, the laughter stopped in just seconds.

"Okay, okay, I'm... sorry, was just guessing. What'd she actually do?"

Managing a small, hesitant smile, Fluttershy regained eye-contact. "W-well, it, um... wasn't that she did anything, specifically, just that I was roped into helping her once and it... wasn't fun at all, to be honest. I was asked to model a few dresses for her and Rarity, and I did, but uh..." She looked down at her hands again. "Well, I didn't exactly like it, but I guess, sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I'd stuck with it." Her head snapped upward again when Aria clicked her teeth.

The surliest siren shook her head, an annoyed look on her face. "Modeling? Nah. Let me tell you exactly why you made the right call..."

Author's Notes:

I like to think that none of my stories are dead, I just don't get around to them all as often as some others. The closest thing I have to an update priority system is going by whatever seems most popular and trying to finish that while working on other stuff on the side, broken up by occasional flights of fancy. So glad I'm not a professional writer!

Yes, Rarity going ga-ga over hair is a little predictable. It's also a very Rarity thing to do, to the point that I don't think I could reasonably get away with her just being totally indifferent to the trio of girls with super-long hair, with Adagio as her first target. It'd be like Twilight ignoring a book she's never seen before, I think.

Did not do a full parody here, but rest assured that Aria and Sonata will get their own songs before the story is through.

Chapter 7: I Don't Care Too Much For Money

Aria knew she was beautiful, but some might be surprised to learn it wasn't something she took a lot of pride in. She'd always known she looked good, it was just a fact of life for the sirens, no matter their form, but that her two teammates got just as much or more admiration always left her feeling like it couldn't have mattered all that much. If someone else can do what you can just as easily, you're not special, at least not for that particular thing. That was what Aria had always thought up until-...

Damn, what year was it again? Um... Well, the exact date doesn't matter, trust me.

Okay. What happened that changed your mind?

Well-

The sirens were not having an especially great time in their new world. A number of factors had led to a severe decline in their store of negative energy, with very little they could do to reverse it. Day after day, they scrounged what little power they could from every disagreement they could stir up, or even be lucky enough to come across and make marginally worse. With so little magic, they weren't convincing tons of people to donate to their housing/food/bored-out-of-our-skulls fund, either, and they found themselves in dire straights. It was when the trio were on the verge of splitting up to try their luck in different towns, then regrouping weeks or months later that Aria had been made an offer by a talent scout.

The important details were that the modeling agency were looking for someone to fit a particular mold, a particular 'look' that they could market to stupid, insecure young women, Aria had it, and Adagio quietly pointed out that if Aria played along, she might find herself on live television at some point.

Y-you were going to sing to hundreds, maybe thousands of people at once?

And work my magic on every single person tuned in, yea. That was the plan.

But, um, I-I thought your voices didn't-

Didn't bewitch anyone outside of live performances? Spoiler alert; the plan wasn't going to work. At all. Never even got far enough to find that out.

I'm sorry.

Meh.

...S-so, what was it like?

Oh, right. Lessee...

The look Aria fit into was 'Bad Girl,' which usually involved low-cut tops, some flavor of fingerless gloves, boots, and tight pants. At first, Aria believed she had hit the jackpot, not just for getting paid to dress as she felt suited her, but because it was something she could do while the others were rejected! Adagio was refused because her full, hourglass figure made her too bulky in a number of places for that slim, difficult-to-reach body they wanted to market (her hair didn't do her any favors as a 'Bad Girl' either), and while Sonata's body may have been just slightly more in line with the 'unrealistically skinny, yet buxom' look, she struck those in charge as being dumb as a post, the kind of girl they already had fifty of. Aria had enjoyed a good, long, smug laugh at their annoyance.

Unfortunately, she soon learned that the joke was on her. Being told to make irritated, disapproving looks for a camera was fun and all, but her stunning, natural good looks won her no friends with the other young models. In hindsight, her periodic remarks about most of them being dumb, useless crybabies that couldn't hold a candle to her even if they were re-purposed as living chandeliers probably didn't help matters. Nor her comments about the rest just being dumb and useless.

"Dammit," Aria hissed as her designer pants slid down around her ankles, drawing a little blush as she looked to the director, "do I have to wear these? They're kinda loose!" Accustomed to something a little more close-fitting, the belts Aria normally wore were purely for show.

The director, Ugly Combover, smiled at one of the girls' agents. "Did you see that? Those pants were tight on Probably Starves Herself, and she-" he pointed to Aria, "is thin enough that they fall down!"

"Oh, yea," agreed Possible Pedo, "I think we've got a keeper..."

It was a rare moment in which Aria wasn't pleased to receive a myriad of jealous stares as she pulled her pants back up.

"Oops," said Fake Eyelashes as she bumped into Aria while she was applying that week's brand of make-up, making her smear eyeliner across her temple for the third time, "sorry about that."

Aria, one eye twitching, didn't need to turn her head to know it was said with an unapologetic grin.

"Aww, what's wrong," asked Veiny Legs in a sweetly faux-sympathetic tone, "can't find your biker-chick short-shorts? No biggie, not like you haven't gotten plenty of camera-time in your underwear before."

"It was a swimsuit shoot," Aria grumbled under her breath while searching through the vanity cabinets again, "stupid cow."

"WOW," came Obvious Boob-Job's shrill, irritating voice in her typical volume, "YOU FELL OVER AGAIN, HUH?! MAYBE YOU'RE JUST TOO CLUMSY TO WALK IN HEELS!"

Getting up, Aria contained herself to murderous grumbles, knowing that she couldn't get away with much when there were this many snickering witnesses. Strange that that didn't apply to whoever shoved her from behind again.

Uhm... w-were those really their names, or-

I'unno, I just remembered everyone there by their most outstanding feature.

And you didn't pick 'Obnoxious Loud-Mouth' for that last one...?

It was a REALLY obvious boob-job.

O-okay then.

Still waiting for her big chance, Aria knew that slugging one of the whiny bitches, or worse yet, using any amount of negative energy to get even, might get her fired and faced with a very displeased Adagio. That was not a fun thing to experience, so all she could do was be grumpy (Bad Girl look and all, only part she was okay with) and bear it.

Coming home one day, Aria threw her coat at the coat-rack, annoyed that that never seemed to knock the damn thing over like she wanted it to. She trudged into the living room to flop onto the couch and numb her brain with the Talking Visualizer for a few hours, but lying on it already was Sonata, giggling as she looked at the cover of a magazine she held over her head.

Raising an eyebrow, Aria bit the hook. "You getting your jollies out of the crinkly sounds paper makes again?"

With an almost ominous little laugh, Sonata sat up, smirking. "No, no, I got bored of that months ago. This is much funnier." Grinning viciously, she turned the magazine around so Aria could see the cover.

She recognized it immediately: It was a picture of herself, taken from behind immediately after her pants had fallen down again. Aria's stance, bent slightly forward and arms out in a classic 'oh no, my pants fell down' pose, left her very-form-fitting-underwear-clad rear as the central focus of the picture. They'd even photoshopped it to look like it happened out on a random sidewalk so as to be totally natural. The caption, in big bold letters, read "Be beautiful no matter what happens~!"

Knowing that this magazine was probably all over town by now, Aria would have paled if her face weren't so red.

Sonata, compassionate soul that she is, began to sing-song. "Aria's britches falling down, on the ground, her butt's round~!"

And that was when Aria slapped the magazine to the floor, extended her arms in strangling preparation, and chased after Sonata while swearing incoherently. That went on for a little while before Sonata tripped, fell, was pounced on, and given the noogie of her life. While her prey squirmed and complained about having her fringe messed up, Aria looked up to see Adagio examining the magazine. She froze in horror when their leader's red-violet eyes slooowly met hers.

Adagio scowled, turning the front page of magazine so Aria could get another good look at her own exposure. "They let you take your pants off in public?!" She dropped it, crossing her arms and pouting. "Ugh, lucky!"

Cherry-red, Aria facepalmed, the motion giving Sonata a chance to slip away. "C-can't we just switch places?! Sing them into making you be the one strutting around with your ass hanging out?!"

Ordinarily, Adagio might have had some teasing remark about Aria having gotten her wish of being the center of attention, the one in the spotlight, but even if Sonata still got a kick out of Aria's misfortunes, this situation had long stopped being funny to her. She sighed. "I'd love to, really, but you forget why we're doing this at all."

"We're still like, flat-broke on energy," Sonata offered while carefully straightening her hair out as best she could with her fingertips, "so even if we walked up and made 'em put us on TV in a snap, we might not have enough power to really make the most of it." The sight of Adagio's approving nod lit up Sonata's heart like a little fire-cracker. Sure, she'd had the last few weeks to remember the exact reason Aria wasn't around for most of the day, but still!

"On that note," Adagio said as she addressed the young model with an almost pleading frown, "since they're putting you on magazine covers now, I don't suppose...?"

Every time Aria had to give this answer, it made her feel like a failure. "No," she said through lightly clenched teeth, "the asswipes in charge haven't said anything about any live broadcasts, and I don't think I've even seen the right kind of camera anywhere near where they have us make the stupid poses. They didn't even tell me about the magazine thing, and even if they did set us up with the right equipment, I doubt they'd want me saying a peep, let alone singing anything."

Adagio had long stopped being surprised, just tiredly nodding as she replied in quiet, understanding tones. "I see. All we can do for now is hope that your new cover is a good sign, so we'll need you to endure until something more comes along." She snapped her fingers in Sonata's general direction before moving for the door.

Aria watched Sonata scamper after her in silence. She knew they wouldn't be coming back with anything substantial, and judging by the way Aria herself didn't have to join the nightly harvests so long as she kept this stupid, stupid job, Adagio probably knew that too. Not like it mattered, whatever it was that had the locals so damn mellow these days meant that one of them singing alone pulled in about as much power as the three of them singing together. Why Sonata kept volunteering to join Adagio every time anyway, Aria could barely guess.

The week following the debut of Aria's cover page was the most grueling yet, even if she did collect her first paycheck. That was never what she'd been after, but it was something. Not quite something worth putting up with the extra abuse she'd been getting from the usual suspects, however, which she suspected stemmed from further jealousy of 'the new girl getting on a cover so soon.' She couldn't decide if it was better or worse that they didn't laugh at her humiliating butt-shot, instead bitterly sniping about careers and publicity or some garbage that didn't matter to her. Complaining to Ugly Combover hadn't helped her either, as he refused to even entertain the idea that the agency 'Bad Girl' was getting picked on by those 'sweet, cheerful girls.'

Aria wondered if he was close pals with Possible Pedo.

Sitting backstage for another stupid, pointless thing, Aria sat by herself as the other models meticulously checked themselves over and over again, occasionally making unkind remarks about negligible details of the others' appearances and getting something snippy right back. Aria had never been their sole target, just the big one.

And that's when it hit her.

Adagio and Sonata went out every single day this last month or so in the often-vain hope of pulling in a modicum more than what it took to draw the amount of energy they spent to stir it up, but here was a festering cesspit of negative energy right in front of her! These models, these smarmy bitches that had been making her life Hell since she arrived (did it really matter who said what first?!) were brimming with pettiness and frustration, with envy and rage, they just needed it brought to the surface!

Scanning the area, Aria found that until that idiot director got back, she was alone with the models in a room with a sound system, a platform, and... oh yes, a mic. Cracking her knuckles, she stood up and got to work, quickly plugging things in where necessary, switching some music on, taking the mic, and jogging to the platform. Looking at the models as they gawked back at her, she grinned maliciously.

"Listen up, bitches!!"

I don't even care what it is, I'll sing to the first damn thing I hear!

Just a second later, the sound system crackled to life. Aria didn't even use her gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUX3j6WLiQ

You can't dance,
You can't sing,
You're useless at everything!
Listen, girls,
here's the scene,
you all are useless teens!

I can do whatever I please.
With all my talent, it's a breeze.
More than skilled, I'm beautiful,
hottest of the lot,
you girls don't compare for squat!

Anybody can be like you,
doing nothing like you girls do.
Sit around looking 'pretty,'
think that all is fine,
you're living on borrowed time.
And when you hit the line,

You are a useless teen!
Primped and preened!
Worthless next to me!
Useless teens!
Feel the heat of reality!

Oh, yea~!

You can't dance!
You can't sing!
You're useless at everything!
Hear me, girls?
That's the scene,
you all are useless teens!

They looked angry at her in the first stanza, but by now Aria was pretty sure she could see some veins standing up. Well, y'know, more-so than usual. A few others, however, looked more hurt than enraged by this little revelation, getting close to tears. And that gave her an idea!

Think your looks will always be there?
You start to age, then no-one cares.
Better go look for a real job,
anything will do,
whoever'll hire you.
You'd better take that chance!

You all are useless teens!
Primped and preened!
Worthless next to me!
Useless teens!
Feel the heat of reality!

Oh, yea~!

You can't dance!
You can't sing!
You're useless at everything!
Face it, girls,
that's the scene,
you all are useless teens!

You all are useless teens!

By the end of it, Aria could practically feel their blend of rage, frustration, and despair, the girls that hadn't broken down in tears at the prospect of their little future fuming where they stood. The angry ones looked like they desperately wanted to say something, but couldn't think (surprise, surprise) of anything to refute what they'd just been musically assaulted with, instead spitting and sputtering until the director came in.

"Sorry I'm late, my cab should'a gotten there like ten minutes ago, but-"

One of the crying models shrieked at him through make-up-ruining tears. "We should have been ready for like, life! Years ago!"

And another snapped at her. "Oh, like you're 'not ready,' Miss Daddy Moneybags? You're only here because your mom wanted to feel like she was doing something by pushing you into this!"

The reply was a screechy expletive before Ugly Combover tried, and failed, to calm everyone down, got a few pointy shoes thrown at him, and called security on the bickering girls as they screamed, scratched and tore at each other. More and more people showed up and got drawn into the increasingly loud (and violent!) breakdown, Aria just sitting back, drinking it all in, and laughing like Adagio at her Adagiest.

Aria grinned brightly. "I got fired, natch, but when I got home with all that power, Adagio had never looked more proud of me." She blinked. "Well, I mean, she did that hold-her-chin-and-kinda-look-down-at-me pose, but with the biggest, most mua-ha-ha smile that when she said-" she made the effort to imitate Adagio's voice as best she could, "'excellent work, Aria,' I knew she meant it."

That negative energy helped them finally get back on their feet, Adagio having prepared a myriad of plans to enact if they could so much as scrape together a fraction of what Aria brought her. She'd even absorbed a good portion of the energy before Aria could actually offer it, somehow! One more reason she was the leader? She'd always seemed a little more... in-tune with the stuff than Aria or Sonata, and they'd never figured out why. Didn't matter now, but still.

Wow, thought Fluttershy, who wasn't sure if she should have been touched by the companionship inspired by an evil deed, she already trusts me enough to share a story like that? Even the embarrassing parts?

It wasn't that much of a stretch, she guessed, she'd been the first one Sunset opened up to as well. Did she just look trustworthy? Or, was it that she looked weak enough that it was just kind of understood that she should keep things secret? She was just about to open her mouth to ask if what she'd just been told was in confidence or not when Aria frowned.

"You can say it, y'know."

"W-what?"

"Don't gimme that," she said with a little scowl, "you know what I mean. That I got what I deserved, rubbing in that they were nothing without their looks, then losing my singing voice?" She shrugged, looking at the floor. "Karma, right?"

Seeing Aria the way she was now, her shoulders slumped, her eyes empty, Fluttershy thought of Sunset Shimmer right after she'd been hit by Twilight's magic; crying in a crater, hurt and alone. It was while she was desperately trying to think of something that might comfort her even a little that Aria spoke up again.

"It was you that wrote it, right? The song you used on us?"

Processing the question, she gulped. Her Scary Social Moment senses detected a very dark turn of conversation incoming. "I-I-I, I'm sorry, I never thought it would be used f-for, I didn't mean to-"

"It was good."

The foreboding feeling popped like a balloon. "...What?"

"Your song, 'got the music in our hearts' or something? I can't even remember the lyrics now, but it was stuck-" She suddenly lunged out of her chair to forcefully press both hands against Fluttershy's shoulders, pinning her to the chair as she hissed a slow promise. "Before I go further, you should know: Tell anyone about this and I will hunt you down. Got it?"

Confidential after all, got it!!

It was all Fluttershy could do to vigorously nod in agreement, though that seemed to be enough to appease Aria as she let go and took a step backward. Contrition colored her expression for just over a second as she scratched her head. "Uhh... S-sorry about that, just, it's kind of a secret and I didn't, I mean, I'm already sorta telling you, so, uh..."

Remembering her first bonding experience with Sunset (one which the former threatener in question had since apologized for about six times), Fluttershy smiled warmly. "I understand completely, and I'm honored that you would trust me with this." She felt like she was skipping a step in not making a Pinkie Promise to not share what she was about to hear, but Aria probably didn't know what that meant yet. At least, she hoped it was just 'yet,' because threats aside, Aria was surprisingly pleasant to talk to!

Letting out a breath, Aria retook her seat. "So, like I was saying..." She glanced at the door to triple-check that it was shut tight and that it was just her and Fluttershy in the room. "The song you hit us with wasn't bad, and I found out that I wasn't the only one that had it stuck in my head like a month and a half later. I first found Sonata humming it to herself, admitted that I kinda liked it too, then she and I nearly wet our pants when Adagio popped up behind us asking what song we were talking about."

The way Aria giggled, not laughed like it was at someone's expense, not fiendishly chuckled, but tittered merrily, warmed Fluttershy's heart a little.

"Turned out, she was scared out of her wits that it was just her, and even if we all hated it for the first couple weeks, it was still damn catchy." Looking back on that evening, she smiled. "That night, we sang together for the first time since the Battle. We couldn't really remember your whole song, though, so we took an old record we'd picked up during our first decade here to sing something that gave us the same feeling." Stuff by four hippie dudes, she was pretty sure. Times had changed, but the sirens' banishment was made just a little easier with a whole different kind of magic.

Clasping her hands together, Fluttershy's eyes sparkled. "The three of you can sing again?!" The only response was a long, silent stare, which slowly deflated her hope that all was well on that front. "Oh... I-I'm sorry."

Aria just shrugged. "Eh, I think we're pretty much over it." This drew a look of shock, but unlike with Sonata, she wasn't ticked off to have to explain the obvious. "I mean, we've gone without our voices and any magic at all since the last time you saw us and we're all still kickin'. We lost our home world, our real bodies, and most of our power when we got here. What's one more thing, right? Gotta keep movin' on."

Relieved though she was that the sirens weren't utterly heartbroken over their loss, Fluttershy couldn't be happy about it. Maybe there wasn't any other way the conflict could have been ended, but, well... Most stories she knew about magical creatures from enchanted worlds ended happily, and part of her felt like any tale of fantasy (whatever that word means now) that ended with three beautiful, singing maidens permanently silenced and left to dwell on their loss forever probably shouldn't be over yet. She didn't know how the sirens' story would end, but she wanted it to be brighter than this.

"W-well, uhm, m-maybe that's true, but... great singing voice or not, you're still good at a lot of other things, right?" Aria gave her a confused look, but her resolve didn't waver! "Because, it was in your song, th-that you could do anything you wanted, so, uh..." Oh, I know! "And, I think you're still really pretty!"

There was a silence as Fluttershy realized what she'd just said, growing redder and redder as she babbled a flustered stream of rewordings while Aria stared back with a single raised eyebrow. Before the embarrassed stammering could reach completely incomprehensible levels, Aria snorted and cracked a little smile.

"Heh, yea. I guess so. Thanks." Thinking about it a little, she snickered, this time in a at-someone's-expense kind of way. "Bet those models are all old and ugly now anyway, and even if I get that old, I'll still pull it off better than they ever could!"

Tearing someone else down, even if they weren't around to hear it, wasn't exactly her favorite method of cheering someone up, but Fluttershy would take it in this case. And not just because those young models sounded like some very mean people.

Oh, I hope Rarity never hears that story, it might upset her to hear about people in the fashion industry behaving that way. Speaking of, I wonder what she's up to?

While the light, loose shirt that might as well have been nothing but a long, thin cloth draped over her shoulders felt complimentary, the tight, shiny, black pants had ridden a little low on Adagio. She'd kind of thought was the point, but Rarity looked a little uncomfortable, so she acquiesced when asked to try on something else. The next choice was a conservative, bookish look comprised of a thin, purple, button-up sweater over a white blouse, a long, pink skirt that mostly covered the white, knee-length socks beneath, and simple shoes Rarity referred to as 'Mary Janes.' Whether or not they had to be made from people with those names, she didn't bother asking. It wasn't the most flattering thing she'd ever worn (indeed, that would have to be nothing but her smile), and the searching look on Rarity's face said she agreed.

"It's... It's just not quite right, I'm afraid, like something vital is absent." She looked good, sure, but Rarity wanted to do better than that! It could be such a frustrating thing; that drive to get a look just right before proceeding, and Rarity wasn't sure she'd have time to get to the other two at all at this rate. "I think I have another idea, if you'd indulge me."

This time, Adagio actually smiled. She might not have been learning much from Rarity here, but it had been too long since her last good dress-up.

Next was a shiny, red dress that tightly hugged her curves all the way down to her ankles, the slits on both sides showing plenty of the black, heeled, thigh-high boots covering her legs. This was the first time Rarity had actually touched Adagio's hair, and only to remove the spiked band and let her long, orange curls cascade down her back. Adagio felt... almost like she had on stage that night, before the spell hit, though the sensation was distorted by a weird kind of nostalgia. Also in her awareness was the fact that Rarity still didn't quite look pleased. She had to ask anyway.

"So, how do I-"

"Stunning, of course," Rarity said without breaking her analytical gaze, "but I'm afraid now I've gone too far in the other direction!" She sighed with audible exasperation. "Please forgive me for this, it's just, I'm trying to find a look that feels right for something as casual as a New Year party, but still works for a New Year party, if you catch my meaning, while remaining faithful to your natural strong points. It's proving to be quite a difficult balancing act, what do you think?"

Slowly turning back and forth to examine (examine, for once, not just admire) herself in the nearest full-length mirror, Adagio hummed thoughtfully. "I'd gladly go like this, but..." She stopped to look at the clothes she'd been wearing just before, folded nearby. "'Feels right for a party,' hmm...?"

Her hair still down, Adagio was wearing the white blouse and purple sweater again, but this time with the top two buttons of each undone. Her skirt was a slightly shinier variant of the soft-pink one from before, but with one slit running almost up to her knee, her usual purple, spiked heels on her feet in place of any of the shoes she'd tried on thusfar. She grinned a little. "How's this?"

Looking over Adagio's changes, Rarity paused. Then she lit up. "How do you feel about wearing glasses?"

A moment later, Adagio had a thin pair of purely-stylistic, rectangular spectacles balanced on her nose, with Rarity looking quite pleased as she picked up a brush. "Now, I think I offered to style your hair?"

Chuckling, Adagio nodded and took a seat, trying to remember the last time she even cared enough to let someone groom her like this. A few quiet, pleasant moments passed as Rarity took to her task, but just as Adagio's mind started to wander, there was a question.

"So, have you ever made any connection to someone from this world?"

"What?"

Rarity giggled. "You know, romantically! Thirty years is a long time to be single, so I'm thinking at least one of you must have a story to tell." Truth be told, she wasn't expecting much in the way of intimate bonds, but the premise of such a dalliance alone made it worth asking. She nearly squeed at Adagio's answer.

"Well..."

The pace of her brushing picked up just a little as she grinned. "Don't keep me in suspense, Darling, what happened?"

Adagio chuckled. "I wouldn't get too excited, none of us ever got very far into a courtship. Still, I had at least one interesting experience, myself..."

The sirens had mastered walking within their first few days in the new world, but they still weren't fully used to their new bodies even a few months after their arrival. The hands certainly had their merits, feet were strangely sensitive to touch for something that needed to be in near-constant contact with things for motion, and none of them could hazard a guess what the regulation cover-up areas on their upper-bodies could be for, but most vexing by far was the hair.

So. Much. Hair.

It was soft and smooth, certainly, but the sheer abundance grew irritating even at the best of times. As luck would have it, a random bystander provided useful insight yet again when they'd heard Aria complaining aloud that she was tired of dealing with her silky burden, telling the trio of a place called a barber shop. When they arrived, those holding trimming equipment, one a black-haired man with a long moustache and the other a blonde young woman that resembled the hotel clerk and that lifeguard from their first few weeks here, were all but elated! This mirth, however, was soon cut short, unlike the sirens' hair for the first hour, which was about the time it took for the barbers to break out the big guns, so to speak.

Wait, what?! I know some hair is thicker than others, but hair is hair and blades are blades, surely yours cuts like any other?

We had hoped, but no. For the last fifteen years or so, I've been operating under the assumption that for these bodies, our hair is the translation of our gleaming, plate-like scales. Anatomically, I know it makes no sense, but it's the only explanation I could think of for why we'd have so much of it when another part of us was missing altogether.

I, I-I see... So, trimming it down proved difficult?

Exceedingly so. That is, until He arrived...

Faced with what might have been steel wool growing out of peoples' heads, the black-haired barber and his young assistant were apparently at their wit's end judging by the way they curled up and cried in the corner and stood very still while taking many deep, slow breaths, respectively.

Aria, only one half of a single pigtail trimmed to hang just below her neck, tapped a foot impatiently. "Well? We aren't paying you guys to not finish the job!" They weren't going to pay them anyway, of course, because singing people they'd employed services from into forgetting they'd ever seen the trio was still standard practice for the first year or so, but damned if she didn't enjoy pushing people.

"I-I'm s-sorry, ma'am," stuttered Arbie Atta, hair-stylist in training, as she spared a nervous glance for her weeping employer and the orange horror that had driven him to that, "but I don't think we have the t-tools to properly s-see to you three right now..." She glanced over the pairs of dulled scissors her boss had thrown over his shoulder while trying to reduce the yellow girl's hair to manageable levels, possibly losing a few more in the fluffy excess.

Well, she thought to herself, I bet running with them is safe now, at least, but why, oh WHY did we promise them money back if we couldn't trim them all?!

They hadn't even started on the blue girl's hair yet, and it looked like she was starting to get bored making crinkly noises with the magazines in the waiting area. Starting to. Arbie was falling into despair as her career fell apart in front of her, but before she pondered whether or not it was too late to be a dentist, the back door to the shop flung open. That was when she knew things were going to get worse before they got better.

There in the door, there stood a man,
his eyes were green, his skin was tan,
tall and thin there did he stand,
and there his thoughts were... naaaaughty.

Sitting in a cushioned chair,
waited a girl with fluffy hair,
and in her eyes, he spotted there,
something... naaaaughty.

The look upon her smiling face,
said 'take your place,
come now, make haste,'
and so there was no... time to waste...

Oh, my! This was your beloved? A slim, but sensitive barber?

Well... The look in his eyes said he wanted me, but as I may have hinted earlier, things didn't exactly work out like I'd hoped when I beckoned him over...

The thin, tan man shuffled away on his back, green eyes wide with terror as Adagio crawled closer on all fours. Where the shop owner and his assistant had failed, he had proved to be an artist with cutting tools, but the fact that he didn't discard a single shear wasn't the reason Arbie had fainted in shock. The sirens all had their hair cut nice and short now, even Adagio's previously-untamed fluff now falling only to her shoulders, but the wicked smirk she wore said she wanted more, even with most of her clothes cut off. She continued her slow, predatory approach in only her undergarments.

"Ohh, don't stop now," she whispered breathily, her voice low and husky, "there's still more to cut off of me..." She continued to close in on the man, his own suit torn and slashed in several places as he continued his frantic, backwards retreat. Adagio giggled at the way he spared a glance for the moustachioed man in the fetal position or the unconscious Atta sister as though hoping they would help. It was just the two of them now! However, before she could take things any further, Aria and Sonata (who had returned from the arcade after Adagio had suggested she would like some time alone) grabbed her by an arm each to pull her away.

"C'mon," urged Aria as they dragged her toward the door, "we got our hair cut, now let's go!"

"W-wait! I have more hair I'd like him to-"

"I already left money on the counter, we're bailing." Rare was the day Aria actually bothered to use any of the inferior human currency, but this time, she actually felt like they owed these people.

Adagio managed to brace herself in the doorway just long enough to smirk and make the 'call me' gesture at her new barber, certain she'd be coming back some day.

Her own hands on Adagio's hair now as she neatly finished tying it into a thinner, but just-as-fluffy, low-hanging ponytail, Rarity noted her possibly perilous position with just a hint of fearful anxiety, but there were no untoward advances so far. "I'm a little surprised you let them carry you out against your will." Relieved, perhaps, but still surprised.

"They were within their rights," Adagio answered with a shrug, "I didn't have a concrete reason -that is, one that would benefit all three of us- to stay and they probably didn't want to risk the police showing up again. Suppose I was being a little selfish at the time."

A sense of fair play with her subordinates, even back then? Sunset and Twilight may be pleased to hear that. "...So, you visited him often?"

The siren sighed. "No, never saw him again. I went back to the same shop within a week, because that was how long it took before our hair had already grown back to irritating proportions, but the people working there would only tell me that he left to visit family and rethink his life." She scowled a little at the memory. "They wouldn't even tell me where he went, you know, just kept insisting that it was a farm in the middle of nowhere." That those were their exact words wasn't encouraging, to be sure. "We learned to live with long hair eventually, but that's my story."

The room went very quiet then, making Adagio turn to look over her shoulder to make sure Rarity was still there. She was, but she looked rather confused.

"...That's really it? Where was the spark, the romance, the passion?!"

Adagio chuckled. "Perhaps you'd have had to be there, but the way he delicately worked those shears through my hair when it was finally my turn," her gaze grew somewhat unfocused as she smiled, "one bracing hand on my shoulder (and I'm pretty sure he didn't do that for the others, by the way!) as he slowly cut closer and closer until he nicked my shirt (though I suppose I really did the rest on my own), I definitely thought we had something special..."

Quietly grateful that she had no intentions of cutting Adagio's hair at all anyway, only of styling it, Rarity stared at her in silence.

My deepest sympathies to any who should fall for you, Miss Dazzle, but may that love flourish where your first did not.

Smiling a little, she opted the change the subject. "So, I've finished with your hair, what do you think?"

Using the nearest mirror, Adagio again studied her new look. The style of the ponytail was different from her usual number, but the way it hung down, tied just over the nape of her neck while leaving her fluffy bangs exactly the same as before, bolstered the 'bookish' feel of her current outfit. She chose to redress this by adjusting her glasses to rest slightly further down the bridge of her nose before smirking and striking a flirty pose. "I think it'll do." Still looking into the mirror, she noticed Rarity's reflection looking back at her, which was when a realization clicked.

Rarity had just gotten her talking. How? Her memory of the details was already going fuzzy, but... love lives, right? She turned to face her stylist for the evening.

"What about you, Miss Rarity? You must have your pick of the fair folk in this town, any outstanding encounters to share?"

The young seamstress flushed crimson. "I, wh-what?"

With a laugh that bordered on friendly, Adagio dismissively waved a hand. "Oh, no need to be modest, you're more than pretty enough to know you could have anyone you like around here. What's the head-count? Fifteen, twenty?"

"N-no!"

"Thirty?"

Her face grew hotter at the very thought. "No!!"

"...Fift-"

Formerly pale, porcelain cheeks were now a painful red as Rarity waved her arms in an 'X' pattern. "I! Am! A! Virgin!!" To her surprise, she didn't immediately get one of those doubting stares or prying looks, just a surprised kind of smile.

"Oh?" The older woman giggled. "Perhaps we have more than a little in common, then." Her exact words sunk in. "I mean, I'm not- I've had plenty of memorable nights, just-" She opted to clear her throat and start over. "You must have high standards for yourself too, is what I meant, you wouldn't let just anyone touch you. Am I right?"

Indeed not being the kind of girl to settle for less than an adequately stunning courtship, Rarity nodded a little, "R-right, but..." but if Adagio meant to say that she utterly refused to... engage with someone on short notice, so to speak, then her story was a little more confusing. "Then, with the barber, why did you...?"

She smirked. "He may not have been the most attractive of the, mm, eight or so people that have caught my eye since we got here, but his firm, yet gentle demeanor and that sexy smile of his won me over." Then she frowned. "Maybe I should have asked his name." That was something she'd learned to do after the fourth target that had reacted like the barber did. Honestly, it was like they were afraid of a little affection!

Eight, thought Rarity, just eight?! In thirty years?! I would have thought these girls would all have-... Oh, dear. I'm a hypocrite.

Rarity herself had had to brush off scandalous rumors more than once, thoughts along the lines that being fair and beautiful meant she must have also been 'adult' at best and 'easy' at worst, that of course having an attractive body just naturally meant she'd all but jump at the chance to use it. These things were not the case, Rarity had grown to despise such assumptions, and here she was casting them on the sirens. That settled it; she'd be giving all three of them the outfits they walked out of here in free of charge... along with those black pants that had fit Adagio surprisingly well. And maybe a tasteful hat or two. Something told her Sonata would look just darling in a bowler ha-

"-rity?"

"Ah, yes, I, uh... I'm sorry, what was it?"

"I said, you've never had a single evening of bliss? With a boy or girl?"

Something fell on its side in the wardrobe of Rarity's mind. "G-girl?"

There was another smirk. "I may not be willing to settle for just anyone, but I know that Sexy isn't restricted to gender. As far as I'm concerned, anyone that can get my attention is fair game."

Rarity turned scarlet again. "Y-you mean you'd, w-with-?"

Noting that the girl in front of her was one of the prettiest in Canterlot, Adagio remembered how she'd felt when Rarity first started giving her weird looks, and decided to return the favor. She stood up and leaned in close, her smile nothing short of wolfish as she spoke in a husky whisper. "Anyone..."

Eyes shrinking to pinpricks as she broke into a cold sweat, Rarity gracefully excused herself-

"Ithinkthat'sallfortodayIshouldreallygetbacktothepartythankyouforcomingkeeptheoutfitverygoodbyenow!!"

-like a baboon having a panic attack before bolting across the room, slamming into the locked door, lightly massaging her forehead, unlocking the door, and making a hasty retreat.

Quietly cackling to herself, Adagio stepped out into the hallway, ready to rejoin the party as well.

Now, let's see if Aria and Sonata have anything to share...

Author's Notes:

Longer-than-usual AN!

Just in case, now seems like a good time to note it: this was a villain song, (the only one in the story, weirdly enough) not to be taken seriously as an attack on anyone. I'm sure there are plenty of models who are good at other things, whether they know they are or not. Never know what you can do until you try, right?

Remember the Atta Sisters thing I established back in Chapter 3? Yea, me neither, they ended up being a lot less involved with the story than I initially intended. Oopsie. Hope this reference to an old, scary cartoon and naaaaughtiest crossover ship-that-never-was I may ever dream up make up for the wasted sub-plot-thing!

Not a perfect match, but here's some visual aid:

(http://uotapo.deviantart.com/art/REVERSE-3-507226250)

Also; I would release more chapters to this story (and shorter, at that), but I've got a lot of words to publish and only so many Beatles-based titles I can come up with based on their songs. I think I have enough for the rest of the story, but if you'd like to see more, I've got some audience interaction for you!

Take any given line, be it from the titles or the lyrics, of a Beatles song, and see if it sounds like a good chapter title (I'll fit it to the events of a chapter as best I can), then post it here for consideration! Here's what I've got already:

Little Darling
Seems Like Years
It's Been a Long, Cold, Lonely Winter
Whisper Words of Wisdom
Let It Be
Can't Buy Me Love
There Will Be An Answer
If It Makes You Feel Alright
Want To Hold Your Hand
And I'll Be Satisfied
It's Alright

I know I could just drop this theme, as it really isn't all that central to the story so much as an amusing little gag, but I'd still like to keep it up for as long as possible. Or would you say I've already pretty much got it covered?

Chapter 8: The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes

Slumping over in her seat, Sonata frowned. "So, yea, drinking wasn't always fun."

Pinkie gently pat her back. The two had moved to a couple of chairs set against a wall while discussing the sirens' experiences with alcohol, which, as Pinkie had anticipated, was not all wacky antics and silly stories to share.

"But, heck," Sonata said with a tiny grin, "I'd gladly take being hung over instead of just ordinary sick, y'know? At least with drinking, it's your own fault when you wake up feeling like you wanna die, but colds and the flu feel like you're getting punished for nothing!"

"Do you guys get sick a lot? 'Cuz I heard about foreign cultures having a hard time with diseases in new lands in History class." Nobody got sick after the sirens' first visit, so she figured they weren't on the carrier side if that was gonna be a thing.

"Not all that much. Our immune systems are pretty good (I don't know if it was because of the gems or not), so it was usually just one of us every couple of years or so." She giggled. "Aria always gets so pitiful, spending the whole time whining and complaining and going 'Uuggh, kill meeee' and stuff, but she's so pathetic about it that it's hard not to feel bad for her, y'know?"

Pinkie smiled, making a back-of-her-head note about this. "You guys took care of each other?"

"Well, duh, it'd only take longer to get better if we didn't!"

"Guess so," Pinkie said through a giggle-snort.

She and the others hadn't been formally asked to keep an eye out for any good points they could uncover about the sirens, by Sunset or Twilight, but their time with Sunset had come with a message of remembering the positives and always looking on the bright side. Not that Pinkie hoped they'd need to be able to list the ways the Dazzlings were okay people if someone had an emotional breakdown or something later on, but she darn sure didn't want another Anon-A-Miss moment, thank you very much!

"Dagi is way less fun, though, because she always hides it from us until it gets worse and she starts getting crazy, going all 'no really, I'm totally fine!' and we have to wrangle her into bed with ropes, chains, and padlocks." Well, except for that one time...

"You chased her down and lasso'd her to get her to rest?"

"Uhh..." Sonata blushed and looked away. "S-sure, let's go with that."

Blinkie Pie. "Okie dokie lokie? I guessed lassos because Applejack is sorta the same when she gets sick." So much for that 'an apple a day' thing. "One time, we actually had to hog-tie her, which probably didn't help with the getting-better process!" Sonata's giggles drew a grin. "I don't get sick very much either, but when I do, I know it's best to stay in bed."

"Yea, I kinda do the same thing whenever it's my turn."

"And the others take care of you?"

"Usually just Dagi, but there was this one time..."

Of course, thought Aria, figures this happens today.

Adagio had left early in the morning (the last few years having somehow turned her into not just a morning person, but one of those mutant freaks who get up before the sun had fully risen) to make arrangements for what was going to be their new home, where they should finally have more room than they could ever need for all the crud they'd accumulated over the last... twenty years or so? Aria guessed that they could have just dumped stuff off somewhere, but as this world was very materialistic, the three of them were hesitant to cast off the material wealth they'd built up, even when they had no idea what to do with half of it.

Unfortunately, Aria had awoken to find that Sonata had come down with something, leaving her as the only one around to deal with it. This meant going to the trouble of making that soup they made whenever one of them got sick, helping Sonata get around the house if she was really feeling weak, and generally being there to wait on her hand and foot.

Foot was a good word, because it was the means by which Aria had been oh so lucky enough to discover the proof of Sonata's sickness splattered all over the kitchen floor. The joyous task of cleaning that up also fell to her, of course, because even if she tried to reason in her head that they'd be moving soon, they'd still have to drag stuff over the puke patch and there was no way she wanted to live with the smell for the remainder of their time here.

Note to self; next time you're sick, just barf directly in Sonata's sleeping face.

No, no, she couldn't do that, she'd never hear the end of it. Not after the frat party.

When she had wrapped up with all the crud she had to do, it was time to bring Sonata her soup. Fortunately, Sonata kept to pattern and had fallen asleep (in her own bed this time!) after her purge. Unfortunately, she had done so stark naked, which at least meant that her puke-spattered clothes were already in the laundry basket. Still, it left Aria with the uncomfortable task of shuffling into Sonata's room while carefully averting her eyes long enough to get to the nightstand, set the soup down, and begin the awkward game of blindly feeling about for the edges of the bedsheets with which to cover the sickly doofus.

With accidental touching, she could wash her hands and feel clean, but accidental seeing would make life very, very uncomfortable for about a week. The day the two of them joined forces to convince Adagio not to leave her room unclothed had been a hard-fought battle with heavy casualties, but so, so worth it when they could look their shameless leader in the eye without awkwardness.

Anyway, when Sonata was a warm, snug, siren-blanket burrito, Aria actually looked at her. She really was pathetic, her hair all strewn about, her precious fringe a mess of strands stuck to her forehead with sweat, and her lips parted to form a little 'o', like she was at another burger joint and waiting for her bendy-straw. The sight of it actually made Aria bark out a laugh in surprise, though she immediately slapped a hand to her mouth. If Sonata didn't wake up, Aria wouldn't have to keep her company in case she needed something, so she tensed up a little when Sonata started to stir.

"No, no," Aria whispered, taking a seat on the bed while gently trying to hold Sonata in place with both hands, "stay asleep, dream of weird candy and a new Last Daydream installment. Or, at least forgetting an old one so you can play through it again."

It was difficult to say whether or not this worked, because somewhere in the process of trying to keep Sonata asleep, Aria noticed a blue hand very lightly holding her wrist. Sonata didn't move, didn't speak, and her eyes didn't so much crack open a hair. Veeeery carefully, Aria seized Sonata's pinkie finger with her free hand to pull it back and extract herself one finger at a time, but (appropriately, somehow) when she got to the middle finger, Sonata's hand sprung to life and seized her again, pulling her in closer while the questionably sleeping siren made a plaintive little noise, her eyebrows knitting together in protest.

Resisting the impulse to just rip her arm away, Aria grumbled. "Ain't a teddy bear, you little dunce, that's-" Realization hitting her, she glanced to the nearest corner of Sonata's bed to see the green, fuzzy gorilla plushie (it had been noticed sticking out of Adagio's hair at some point the last time they went to a circus, no one they asked knew where it came from, so Adagio gave it to Sonata) sitting in its usual post. The angling was tricky, but Aria managed to bend her free arm around to grab it, set it by her side, and start again on loosening Sonata's fingers to make the switch.

It took twelve minutes of slow, painstaking effort to get free without disturbing the hand too much, and she'd had to hold the gorilla with her teeth so she could drop it into Sonata's grip when she yanked her hand away, but while she did manage to free herself, it hadn't worked perfectly. Sonata, still asleep, grabbed the gorilla, but let go of it almost as fast and made this pitiful, anguished little sound. Combined with that noise, in a weird moment of empathy, Aria could practically read her face.

'Where are you going? What did I do wrong? Why are you leaving me? I'm sorry, please come back! Please?'

But Aria was free now. It wasn't her problem, and when Sonata woke up, she wouldn't even remember the dream in which she was probably a dumb, lost puppy and her owner finally got sick of her pissing on the kitchen floor or whatever. She could go now. Let Sonata sleep and Adagio would take care of her when she got back later.

Low and weak, Sonata let out another whimper, a tiny "Nuu..."

Looking at the least powerful member of their group, always the last to harmonize in their songs (by a very short margin, but she noticed, dammit), always slowest on the uptake, almost always the one to blame when something went wrong, never her equal even since the day they met, Aria sighed, walked over, sat on the bed again, and brushed her forearm over Sonata's fingertips.

As though not believing it at first, Sonata groped about with both hands (luckily without disturbing her bedsheet enough to expose anything) before tightly seizing Aria's arm, hugging it happily as her face shifted to a grin of blissful contentment, like everything in the universe had been solved forever.

Shaking her head, Aria used her free hand to ruffle Sonata's fringe some more.

"You know something? You really are the worst."

Pinkie held both hands to her cheeks. "Awwww!!"

Sonata looked less affected by the tale of a tender moment, making an irritable face and resting her hands on her hips. "Yea, I know, but my fringe was a total mess when I woke up!"

"I'll bet," giggled Pinkie, who then tilted her head, confused. "Wait, if you were asleep the whole time, how do you know about this?"

"Because I told her."

Both jumped at the voice of Adagio, who had appeared over Pinkie's shoulder without her or Sonata noticing. Perhaps more startling was her new outfit, which made her look bookish, but... eye-catching. Pinkie didn't want to use the words 'sexy librarian' to describe a new/potential friend, so she'd wait for someone else to say it.

"Well," Adagio elaborated, "Aria told me when I demanded to know why I found them sleeping in the same bed (I had some ideas about it that needed dubunking on account of one being naked, you see), and then I passed the story on to Sonata when-" Sonata's sudden frown and 'please don't' eyes made her stop. "...When the time seemed right." Sonata looked grateful for this, so she chose then to change the subject. "So, what are we up to over here?"

Quickly getting up to bring another chair over and arrange a little three-chair circle, Pinkie smiled. "Talking about stuff you guys did!" She pat the new chair twice before being seated again, smiling a little wider when Adagio accepted her offer of seatedness. Seatedness was next to friendliness. Maybe. "What's it like living so long, anyway?"

Sonata and Adagio shared a look, as though uncertain how to answer the question off the top of their heads.

"Well," Sonata said while idly scratching her head, "I guess it was pretty shocking when we noticed it."

"Huh?"

"Yes," nodded Adagio, "shocking is a good word. It was ten years before we were sure we weren't aging anymore, but the revelation most definitely took us by surprise." Following a short pause, she pointed at Pinkie. "Yes, that face is a good demonstration."

"I think," Rainbow Dash offered while pulling up her own chair, just slightly disappointed that no one looked as surprised when she popped up, "she's more surprised about the 'not aging anymore' part, 'cuz I know I am. I thought you guys were like, primordial doom-spirits made of pure evil, ravaging the world since the dawn of time or something."

"Hmph," Adagio hmph'd as she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes, a motion mimicked by Sonata, "well, so sorry to disappoint you."

Realizing her error, Rainbow was distantly glad that Applejack wasn't there to thwap her on the head as she placatingly raised both hands, an apologetic smile on her face. "I mean, that was what I thought back when we first heard about you guys from Twilight, before we knew anything about you." Both sirens looked considerably less offended, but she made the mental note of thin ice anyway. "So, uh... the not-aging thing... Story?"

Sonata scratched her head. "Um... We kinda just, stopped growing, once we got here. Never figured out why."

"Well, I have a few theories," mused Adagio, "but the one I've been going with for the past couple decades is that our magic must have manifested... oddly, in these bodies. Over in Equestria, we were much more powerful, but still mortal, the same as just about anyone else."

Visibly worried, Rainbow scratched her head. "Does, does that mean we stopped aging too? Because eternal youth sounds great on paper and all, but I'd at least like to be a little older before I get stuck with the same body forever."

Adagio shrugged. "You're running on a different kind of magic than what we used, so whether or not there are side-effects is something you'll have to take up with your princess." It tickled her a little that Rainbow didn't look any less unsettled by the idea.

"Yea... cool... nothin' to worry about, then."

"Well it was scary for us," huffed Sonata, "'cuz when we were sure we'd stopped getting older, we totally thought we were gonna be trapped in a magicless world forever!" There came a pause. "Which I guess is hard to sympathize with for you guys..."

Pinkie managed to smile anyway. "I think I get it, sorta. It'd be like if we were sent to a world with no candy, chocolate, or icing, and then learned we'd never, ever kick the bucket! And, couldn't just invent that stuff. Which I guess sorta breaks the metaphor a little."

"Haha, I guess! But, mainly it was the total hopelessness of ever getting back to where we wanted to be, our goal in life (which I know was evil and all, but still) made pretty much impossible in the long run, and no sign that we weren't just gonna be stuck here forever. Then you guys came along, raised our hopes way up, and crushed our dreams for good, which sucked for months, and, um... then, uh..." Sonata's smile quickly slipped away. "Hey, Dagi, how does this not totally suck again?"

Sonata had said and done a lot of stupid things over the years, but Adagio could have kissed her for the perfect set-ups she occasionally delivered, even if they were by accident.

"Because," she answered calmly, "while it was painful having our meaning in life irrevocably torn from us, it meant we not only could, but had to move on. While we weren't exactly destitute for the duration, it wasn't as if we spent all the last thirty years in luxury either. As Sonata said, there were low points, there were trying times, and gathering enough power to keep going was a near-constant worry throughout. Over these last months, however, I wouldn't have preferred living this way as opposed to being surrounded by adoring servants at all times, but having had time to think about it? Scraping by for the last few decades wasn't a delight either, because we even spent our good days searching for a way back to Equestria." Her voice quiet, she made a small, but genuine grin. "Now we can breathe."

She could see on their faces that Pinkie and Rainbow were internally agonizing about whether or not to tell her about the way back to Equestria again, but she focused on Sonata. Judging by her vacant smile, she was either playing along or believed every word. Even if Adagio had no idea how they would reclaim the power they'd spent their whole lives working for, let alone revenge for losing that power, the breathing part had been true. For now, at the very least, they didn't have to worry about another harvest for the foreseeable future.

We will still need some kind of power, though. If we succeed in learning their tricks, will we be able to siphon the same friendship-based energies just by acting like the Rainbooms do? And, if it worked, would we be able to use it however we wanted, or be limited to shooting down opposing forces? Even if we could feasibly gain some amount of good will with the latter if something else ever showed up, these girls would most likely do it before we could. If it doesn't work and we don't gain any magic at all, we should at least have some newer, 'nicer' manipulation methods by the end of tonight. Or, longer, if they don't find a reason to shun us.

She came out of her thoughts to find Sonata, Pinkie, and Rainbow talking to Rarity, which at least meant no one noticed her spacing out again. Perhaps the last few decades of only talking with Aria and Sonata on a regular basis had had some kind of effe-

Focus, you idiot!!

"I dunno," Sonata said while uncertainly rubbing one arm, "I kinda like what I've got now."

"It shouldn't take terribly long," Rarity said in faintly pleading tone, "and I promise you'll come out of it looking just darling!"

"Yea," Pinkie chimed in while pointing at Adagio, "just look what she did for her!"

Registering what was going on and what Rarity was most likely asking for, Adagio again silently thanked Sonata for the lead-up. "The process may take some time," she said while reaching back to brush a hand along her downward-hanging ponytail, the thin ribbon holding it together tied just over the nape of her neck, "but I can assure you that the selection is as lovely as it is wide, and-" she winked, "-she'll be gentle with you even if it's your first time!"

That last part got two wide-eyed stares from Pinkie and Rainbow, the bewildered looks only magnified when they noticed how red Rarity had gotten.

"Rarity," Rainbow said slowly as she raised one eyebrow, an amused smile tugging at her lips, "what were you doing...?"

"N-nothing!"

Pinkie tilted her head, having a hard time keeping a straight face for this. "Then where'd the new outfit come from?"

Adagio took a special kind of delight in the way Rarity sputtered. "I, we, well, obviously we weren't doing nothing, but garments were only removed for completely chaste purposes!"

"Right," Rainbow snickered. "Y'know, I think we get what you meant when you were talking about getting your hands on her now!"

"Her hair," Rarity nearly shrieked in clarification, nervously glancing about to see just how many heads were taking this conversation out of context, "I was talking about her hair!!"

Pinkie beamed. "But you still got her to take her clothes off?"

"Ugh!"

As the nearby Rainbooms went on with their (good-natured, from the little smiles all three were wearing) teasing, Adagio discreetly whispered to Sonata.

"What have you picked up so far?"

A familiar look of confusion on her face, she whispered back. "Huh?"

Sonata forgot the plan. Perhaps that's for the best; she can't blurt out what she doesn't remember, right?

Unfortunately, she needed to know if Sonata had learned anything yet, but maybe she'd forget it again a while later? Or at least not go spilling everything, that would be lovely too. "Ways of making them talk, the reason we're-"

"Oh! Um... Well, when I told Pinkie I didn't wanna talk about any of my not-so-fun drinking funtimes (you remember, before I started getting Aria to come with me?), she stopped smiling for just a sec, nodded once, and made this little grin as she said it was okay, that I didn't have to tell her, but the way she smiled was sorta cute and that totally made me wanna tell her! So I guess, like... I'unno, have you tried doing something kiddie?"

"...'Kiddie'?"

Internally, Sonata roared with pride for having spent so many hours in the past few decades playing JRPGs, where cutesy, child-like characters were common and their mannerisms were something she was well familiar with. "Like, holding your hands together over your lap without bending your elbows, making big, wide eyes, and a little smile! Helps if you duck your head down a little too!"

"Hm... You once described a little girl, from the day we arrived he-"

"Yep, that's where it started!"

Adagio pulled her in for a quick nuzzle. "Good girl, Sonata."

Sonata giggled with glee at the rare praise, inadvertently giving Adagio a good idea of what kind of expression to make when trying that new manipulation method. Unfortunately, looking back at the Rainbooms revealed three grins that said they'd seen her doing this, drawing a blush and a bashful smile.

"Haha, we, I was, just assuring her that the makeover process is easy, painless, and noninvasive." Whether she bought it or not, Rarity seemed to appreciate this.

"Oh, naturally! So what do you say, Miss Dusk, could I interest you in a new ensemble?"

"Well..." Standing up, Sonata smiled. "I don't know about one of those, but I'd be okay with some new duds!"

"Yes, of course," Rarity chuckled as she led Sonata by the arm, "right this way, please..."

While the two of them headed for Rarity's room, Pinkie looked down at her phone to answer a text message. "Oh, sprinkles, we're running low on snacks!" She gave Rainbow and Adagio an apologetic frown. "I gotta go whip up some more grub, can't have a party without tasty face-stuffing!" Well, you could, according to dangerous lunatics who should be watched carefully, but Pinkie refused to hear such blasphemy as she gave the two a peppy smile. "Back in a bit!"

And off she went, but before Adagio could utter a single syllable, Rainbow gave her a frown of her own. "I should probably go help her. Long story, but this isn't the first time she's tried to restock the snack table during a party and I'd rather make sure she doesn't go overboard again." Carefully darting through the crowd after Pinkie, the last Adagio saw of her was a waving hand. "Catch ya later, though!"

Sitting in silence, Adagio felt just a little bit cheated.

They could have at least asked me if I'd like to help, or waited long enough to let me offer. I don't know much about cooking, but I'm sure I could have done some simple, unobtrusive task while listening to them speak.

Well, maybe they were doing her a favor. Rarity certainly wouldn't react well if Adagio got covered in flour and/or frosting if things got hectic with Pinkie at the mixing bowl, and while sparking conflict between two or more Rainbooms might have been easy that way, she no longer had anything to gain from stirring up negative energy.

No matter. She would just... sit here. Alone. No one else in the room was looking at her all that much, so she could at least focus on the first Rainboom she saw, and within minutes, her patience was rewarded with none other than Sunset Shimmer walking into the room! Not only was she by herself as well, but she smiled the second she caught sight of Adagio.

Walking over, Sunset kept her smile. "Heya. What are you doing by yourself over here?"

"Um..."

Damn, forgot to think of even one cover story!!

Truly, she had been out of the game for too long, which left her to fall back on improv. "Well, I found Pinkie Pie and Sonata here, Rainbow Dash and Rarity showed up, then all of them left for one reason or another. Does that happen often?"

"Haha, kinda." It had happened a few times with the people that held her up talking while she'd been looking for the Dazzlings, at least. There was always the option to just blow them off, but she didn't want to risk looking rude at a party, especially considering what it meant that people actually wanted to talk to her again. "So," she said while indicating Adagio's cute new outfit, "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Rarity took Sonata upstairs."

Adagio nodded. "It sounded that way, yes. Does that happen often?"

"Eh, it varies."

Play cool, Sunset.

Briefly looking her over, she gave Adagio an emphatic grin. "You look great, by the way."

The instinctive response to such sentiments was a coy smirk and a remark on the obviousness of the statement, and perhaps a flirty wink if the atmosphere was right, but thinking back to Sonata's suggestion, she opted to test out the new technique. Carefully watching Sunset's face, Adagio clutched her hands together while otherwise holding her arms down straight, lowered her head just enough for it to be noticeable, and gave Sunset a bright, wide-eyed look with a little smile as she said "Thank you!"

Sunset Shimmer was a pretty smart girl. Through only light study, she had mastered multiple forms of advanced magic before even taking Celestia's entry test, only getting better from there. Along with it, she had become knowledgeable on many academic subjects, and was the go-to person for tutoring among her friends. In spite of this, her heart had a way of taking control from her head, leading her to do some very unwise things. It happened when she stormed out on Celestia and charged through the mirror, it happened when she stole the crown she had half a clue how to actually use, it happened a few more times during Twilight's first foray into this world, it happened when Rainbow was about to reveal her magic (which it turned out the sirens already knew about...) too early during the Battle of the Bands, and most recently, when she caught sight of Adagio in that adorably dorky outfit, especially those little glasses, smiling sweetly as she performed an achingly cute gesture at her.

All that escaped her throat was a hoarse whisper muttered through trembling lips on an increasingly warm face, which (fortunately?) shifted Adagio's expression to one of confusion.

"Sunset? Is something wrong?"

"I-" A dozen half-baked excuses all scrambled and fell over each other in the doorway of her mind, none intelligible in the frantic dash for a response. "I should wear pants!" She felt herself rapidly grow warmer as Adagio blinked very slowly. "I mean, Rarity, pants with, I m-mean, she does all kindsa clothes, so, never got one myself, for, err, a makeover, I mean, after the-" She started talking faster. "I mean, not that you guys are 'after' or before or, youprobablydon'tevenknowwhatI'm- y-y'know I think I'll go see if I can get my turn after Sonata, bye!"

By some miracle, she didn't slam into anyone in her hasty retreat before locking herself in a bathroom to cool down.

So, what happened to playing it cool?

Oh, Brain, nice of you to report back to work today. Where were you when I needed you?!

Not my fault you reroute all control to Heart whenever it acts up. I told you we should have taken Celestia's discipline lectures seriou-

Ohh, shut up!

Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, she sighed.

I shouldn't even be thinking about her like... like that. Not yet, anyway. Friends. The plan was to help the sirens along in making friends, a bit like Twilight did for me, only while actively overseeing the process.

That was her goal tonight: Make sure that the three of them could get along with the students of CHS, or at least her own friends, then help them along to find the kind of peaceful, happy life she'd settled into, dealing with all their past pains and heartaches when they were good and ready.

...But, before that, I've still got a tiny apology to offer. Or three. Depends how they feel.

Give or take the dozen or so other people in the room at the time, Adagio had been alone just a minute ago, so maybe she'd still be there by the time Sunset was done cooling off.

Remembering that face, however, the look of those gleaming, magenta eyes through the frames of her spectacles, did nothing to speed this process.

Still sitting where Sunset had left her, Adagio stayed quiet for several moments.

...Well, I must have gotten that wrong.

It figured, really, she should have practiced the technique before trying it out on someone, something she would be sure to do when she got home later tonight. That was arguably a useful tip in itself; not to try whatever they picked up tonight without careful analysis and practice, so flubbing Sonata's suggestion so badly as to make Sunset tear off in a panic wasn't a complete waste! That was what she decided to tell herself as she idly looked around, staying put in case Rainbow and Pinkie returned.

Now where is Aria...?

Author's Notes:

Some stories I pick up and write and write and write, but some others only get trickles of words at a time for most of the year. I hope to bump this one up from paragraph-or-so-every-several-weeks status.

Theory on the sirens' longevity for interpretations in which they have it: Magical weirdness, not necessarily gem-based immortality! I like to think that softens the blow a bit; that they're not quite losing their eternal lives so much as regaining their mortality. Easier to swallow if the extended lifespans (while trapped in a world they did not like) came as a shock to them, maybe.

Theory on Sunset's many derpy moments while supposedly being so intelligent from reading A Dazzling Sunset.

...Her borderline fetish for the nerdy look, however, is something I made up a year or two ago. And, based on her lack of reaction to Sci-Twi, isn't even true. Shame.

Chapter 9: And I Found Out

"You don't eat meat either?!"

Nervous though she was that Fluttershy was smiling that wide at her, Aria externally kept her cool. "Uh, yea, no, not really a fan. Before you ask, it's not for the 'oh, the precious widdle baby animals,' just, blood and bones and death in my mouth is like, ew." To her relief, Fluttershy looked neither offended nor condescending about either part of the statement, which put her two steps above Sonata.

"That's perfectly understandable. To be honest, I don't mind non-vegetarian diets that much, but any reason at all for not eating animals is fine by me."

Aria felt a corner of her mouth quirk upward. "Cool. Y'know, I tried to get the others to join me with that, 'cuz it's kinda nasty watching someone else do the same thing, but, like..." She shrugged. "Not much luck."

Despite her tiny, 'what can you do?' smile, Fluttershy let out a tiny sigh. "I suppose your people were mostly carnivorous, back in Equestria?"

"Not exactly, just, couldn't get the others to see it my way. Sonata mostly agreed when I described it right (though she still eats meat if it doesn't directly look like plain meat anymore, like if it's ground up or fried), but Adagio just did not give a f-" She hung on the syllable, it striking at the last second that the girl across from her probably came from a really clean, wholesome family. "-ffffishstick...?" That Fluttershy just giggled at her suggested she was used to this, but the reason surprised Aria maybe more than it should have.

"It's okay, I'm used to swears. Sunset in particular used to say them all the time when we were getting to know her." She made what Aria could only call a Disapproving Parent face. "Rainbow is prone to some nasty moments herself, mostly just when her favorite sports teams don't win. Still," she said with soft, warm expression that, were they outside, Aria was convinced would have summoned a cloud of butterflies, small woodland critters, and concentrated rays of sunshine, "thank you for being so considerate."

This had to be a good sign, because Aria certainly felt good about this situation, and that only happened when things were going her way. She'd have made note that the Rainbooms could apparently tolerate pretty big lifestyle differences from each other, but she, Adagio, and even Sonata were already pretty different and more or less got along. In their own way. Most of the time.

It didn't feel like valuable enough information to offer Adagio, was the point, but she was sure she'd get there soon!

"So," Fluttershy urged, "you were telling me about the others' approach to meat?"

"Oh, yea, uh... I actually tried taking a page out of Adagio's book to get her to stop, but, well..."

In her efforts to get Adagio and Sonata to stop eating meat, Aria devised a plan to shock the former into never wanting to taste flesh again. It began with convincing Sonata that the cutesy little critters she never missed a chance to fawn over in games and Japanese cartoons would, in fact, be made of meat in the real world. This was only partly successful, because Sonata's particular brand of Stupid kept her from making that connection so long as the meat she was chewing didn't look like she'd expect meat to look.

It must have been one powerful strain of Stupid, because as long as Aria didn't look at or think about it too hard, she could vaguely forget that Sonata's favorite, post-butcher meals were meat too.

Once Sonata was more or less on board, Aria got her in on the scheme; the two of them preparing dinner together one night. Though Aria didn't enjoy handling meat much more than eating it, she kept it together as they carefully conditioned and seasoned the pork to be just unusual enough to be distinguishable from an ordinary meal. When dinner began, Aria waited until Adagio had cut a piece, and the second she pierced it with her fork, told Adagio that the sample on her plate was meat from a real person!

Adagio popped it into her mouth without a second thought.

With Aria staring in open-mouthed shock, Sonata smiled sheepishly. "...I think she called your bluff, Aria."

Adagio raised an eyebrow, swallowing the pork before speaking. "That was a bluff?"

A long, fearful silence filled the room. Adagio rolled her eyes.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, it's only cannibalism if I eat one of you two." More silence over another mouthful. "And I need you both alive."

Crossing her arms, Aria sighed and looked away. "If that wasn't bad enough, I only got off the hook for lying to her because she actually liked the meal. So, I figured if she didn't mind eating people, nothing was gonna get her to quit." No response. She glanced at Fluttershy to find her curled up into a ball in her seat, shivering and shaking like the Boogeyman himself (who does NOT actually exist!!) was standing behind her.

"Sh-she, would h-have eaten, m-m-meat, f-from-"

"A human being, yea. If it helps, this was a couple years after we got here and none of us thought very highly of your people in general. I mean, I know on the surface, it might seem like everyone is okay, but when you pull back a couple layers, they-"

"I-I know," Fluttershy said with firm conviction even as her voice shook, "trust me, I... I know that part."

Aria stared back at her in genuine surprise, but the little hints of sadness, regret, and even what might have been hardened bitterness blended together to form an expression Aria wouldn't have thought the girl was capable of. That said, the face she was making and the feelings attached to it were probably off-limits, and not just because it wasn't likely that anything useful might come up, so she steered conversation back. "Anyway, that was my attempt to get the others to quit eating animals." She shrugged, going for a good-humored tone. "Not that they were ever grateful."

The stormclouds visibly clearing from her eyes, Fluttershy blinked in confusion. "The, the animals...?"

"Yea. We actually tried to get a pet of our own a couple times in our first decade here, 'cuz it seemed like a thing normal humans did and to be totally honest, it might've been nice having a fuzzball to come home to at the end of the day," the bright, warm grin this got out of Fluttershy made her wish she could warn her what was coming, "but, well... There was never any chance of it working out." As anticipated, this led to a particularly pained frown and the most obvious question.

"Why not?"

"Animals hate us. Always have. Back in Equestria, I figured it was because we were just naturally big and scary, and tiny lizard-brain instict says 'run from that,' but even when we got here, birds, alley cats, peoples' dogs, and even bugs just plain steer clear. Have you ever walked into a pet shop and had everything in there just start freaking out?"

Fluttershy didn't answer out loud, just kind of fixed her with a curious stare. She could almost see the gears moving in Fluttershy's head, pieces shifting and clinking together as she puzzled out an answer. In a slightly surreal moment, Aria could almost sense what Fluttershy was about to do as she stood up, picturing her mouth moving even before she had any idea what she was going to say.

"I-if it's alright with you-"

Okay, could'a predicted that part.

"-would you mind coming with me for a bit?"

Aria raised an eyebrow even as she stood up too. "What for?"

"I just have this hunch. This way, please."

"You sure, uh, Rarity is gonna be fine with us in her room?"

"If we were just random party guests, probably not," Fluttershy answered as she shut the door behind them, "but I'm sure she'll understand if I explain." She cleared her throat. "Opal?"

"Mrr."

Out from under the huge, cushy-looking bed came a big, white, fluffy cat wearing a purple bow on its head and a purple collar studded with what might have been real jewels.

"Mraow?"

Giggling, Fluttershy knelt down to scoop her up, the cat making no expression as it was presented with its limbs idly dangling. "This is Opalessence, but we usually call her Opal. Say hi, Opal!"

"Mrrow."

"Uh," Aria managed, still not having taken another step inward from the door, "hi." She tensed when Flutttershy stepped closer with the cat, and not just because she knew the feet was where the legendarily painful, sharp parts were. "Whatareyoudoing?"

"I-I think it'll be okay," Fluttershy said through a hopeful smile as she continued to advance, arms loaded up with slightly bemused fur, "look, she isn't even fidgeting!"

It was true, the cat continued to hang there passively, but the last time one of them got close to a cat...

Well, at least Sonata made herself useful by proving that their injuries healed pretty fast. Didn't even leave scars!

Unfortunately, she doubted Fluttershy had the same thing going, raising her palms along with her voice. "That thing is gonna claw the shit outta you to get away and your friends will blame me, put it down!"

Fluttershy stopped, a hurt little twinge on her face making Aria worry that the damage was already done. "O-okay." As requested, she lowered Opal to the floor, contrition on her face by the time Aria could see it again. "I'm sorry, but, I've had this feeling, since the three of you walked in tonight."

The worst possible outcome averted, Aria tried and failed to clamp down on an exasperated sigh. "And what would th-"

She jumped with a start when she felt something rubbing her leg, looking down to see the cat brushing its face against her. Frozen in place, she didn't even realize she'd stopped breathing as it looked up at her.

"Mrow?"

Knowing exactly what it looked like when a cat just didn't like someone, Fluttershy smiled. "The first time we saw the thr-"

"It'stouchingmyleg!!"

"I think she li-"

"WHATDOIDO?!"

"P-please, stay calm..."

Stepping closer for a better look at Aria's face, Fluttershy decided that her theory could wait a little longer as she picked up Opal again, cradling the cat in her arms and taking a step back. This seemed to help Aria get a grip on the situation again as she stared back in shock.

"...That's... never... happened..."

"As I was saying," giggled Fluttershy, "the first time we saw the three of you, you had this... feeling to you, like there was something big and scary just behind you, but impossible to see. When you came in with Sunset tonight, I didn't get that feeling at all." Aria just blinked at her very slowly, to which she responded with a shrug and a sheepish little smile. "Th-that's how I see it, anyway."

Aria could only manage a dumb nod as she focused on the cat. The cat that would, from what she just saw, not spaz out and cut anyone to ribbons if she got closer. So she did.

One step. No reaction from the cat.

Another. Nothing.

Another. It looked up at her like it was bored.

"Mrr?"

Slowly, as though afraid she would lose a finger, Aria dared reach out to touch its head, stopping when the cat looked up to sniff her fingers. After a short, tense (for Aria, anyway) moment, Opal apparently deemed them acceptable, brushed the side of her face against a fingertip, and resumed sitting there like a fluffy, pampered sack of potatoes.

And then, for the first time in her life, Aria pet a kitty.

Meanwhile, in Rarity's dressing room, Sonata felt no need to make use of the little dividey-wall thing. Taking your clothes off was fine if there was nobody of the opposite sex or any cops around, so she dropped her skirt before Rarity had even shut the door.

When she turned around, Rarity blinked, then chuckled. "Well, you're certainly eag-... Uh. Sonata, Darling, were you intending to go swimming in this weather?"

"Huh? Oh! Nah," she said while stripping off her shirt, revealing a bikini top that matched her briefs, "I just wear a swimsuit for undies."

"...May I ask why?"

"Sure thing!"

There was a long pause before Rarity clued in that she was expected to formally ask the question. "Why are you wearing a bikini instead of underwear?"

"Easy, I figured out the system! If your clothes fall off in public, people point and laugh because they can see your underwear, when you don't wear any, they point and laugh because you're naked."

Rarity nodded, still perplexed.

"Eventually it hit me that when you go to the beach or a pool, everyone's in stuff that looks like underwear, but isn't, and no one gets embarrassed at all." She beamed with pride. "So if my skirt falls down again, nobody'll mind because I'm wearing a swimsuit!"

Piecing together the logic through an awkward silence, during which Sonata's smile didn't waver in the slightest, Rarity could at least see where she was coming from. "R-right, yes, that... makes so much sense."

"I know, right? Can you believe Aria and Dagi still wear normal underpants? They'll totally look ridiculous if we ever get strip-searched again!"

That day was pretty embarrassing, for her and Aria. Adagio being told several times to stop teasing the guards and making poses while she waited did not help.

"Y-yes, well," Rarity said with a slightly forced smile, "what say we get on with this, hm?"

Note to self: Pinkie Pie Principle applies to Sonata Dusk.

"So," she continued, "I was thinking we'd start with something simple..."

To Rarity's relief, Sonata proved much easier to find a style for than Adagio had, though she paused in indecision when considering what to do with her hair. The long, white sweater whose sleeves stopped just at her knuckles paired with a short, florescent pink, pleated skirt and red, shiny, knee-high boots made for an adorable, but still subtly flirtatious look that Sonata visibly approved of, given how long it took for her to tire of spinning around in front of the full-body mirror.

Her standard ponytail, however, left something to be desired. That something was not provided by having her wear her hair down, but the vision of Sonata with a french braid struck like lightning, and within minutes, Sonata was seated just as Adagio had been.

"While I've got you here," Rarity asked cautiously, the bulk of her focus on keeping Sonata's dark-blue stripe to its own separate braid, "any... interesting stories to tell?"

"Umm... Well, there was the time I got this big rash on my-"

"Not like that," a wrinkle-nosed Rarity quickly interrupted, "I mean in terms of love lives, Darling."

"Mine?"

"Well, Adagio already told me a bit about hers."

Glancing over her shoulder, Sonata chuckled. "Heard about the stalkers, huh?"

Rarity stopped braiding. "The what?"

Sonata quickly faced forward again. "Well, if ya already know about hers, Aria's is just sad, so I'm going with mine."

A veritable wildfire of curiosity lit in regard to that second part, Rarity forced herself to focus on the braiding. She'd get her chance, Aria was up after they were done here, but the trick would be getting her to say a peep about it. She resumed braiding as Sonata spoke.

"I kept off all that stuff for the first like, three years 'cuz I thought we'd just be going back soon, but then we were still here and it turned out I had to learn how to do all the human seduction stuff Dagi'd been picking up pretty much since day one. She's a pretty good teacher, so it didn't take all that long, and in less than a month, I was getting people to carry stuff and buy me things with the best of 'em!"

Rarity ignored the odd little pang of guilt that stirred in her chest. "And, this aided your search in romantic partners?"

"...Kinda? I mean, I thought about the whole dating thing, but part of Dagi's lessons was sex-ed stuff, and I always got sorta freaked out thinking about what kinda scary, mutant, half-fish babies I might make, 'cuz like, what if we're still fishy on the inside, y'know?"

"Somehow, I suspect that's not a danger."

"W-well, that was my reason!" It totally wasn't just because people always saw her as a dim-witted kid sister, no matter what Aria said! "Anyway, I didn't really score a ton of dates," she smiled brightly, "but luckily, this world has all kinds'a ways to masturbate!"

Rarity froze, her jaw dropped and her entire head burning. Somehow, this was worse than Adagio's... interest in her.

Sonata, not noticing this, started listing off on her fingers. "There's electric-"

That was as far as she got before Rarity tightly gripped her shoulders. "Wh-why don't we leave this talk for another day, hm?"

Confused, Sonata looked over her shoulder, eyebrow upraised. "But you're the one who wanted to talk about-"

"Something else entirely, Darling, what I had in mind was more, err... well, still intimate, just, involving other people."

"Ohh."

She dared feel relief and even hope when Sonata seemed to understand. Then the girl smiled.

"Okay, let's talk about your weird rashes!"

It could prove to be a very long night.

Author's Notes:

Fluttershy is pretty much my go-to for when a unique perspective is called for; someone to notice something the rest of the cast might never see by themselves, especially if it's something you're more likely to see from a calm, quiet place.

Sonata driving Rarity up the wall, however, is just one of those things that speaks to me for no cohesive reason, but I suspect it has something to do with Rarity working as a pseudo-Adagio that doesn't know how to crack the whip and put her foot down.
And yes, I have ideas about how Pinkie and Adagio might interact (based on the specific interpretations of both, of course), but can't promise there'll be room for it in this part of this story.
Maybe once the new-year party is over?

Chapter 10: Yesterday Came Suddenly

There's probably some kind of rule to this...

That was the thought that had Adagio paralyzed where she stood, a hand on her chin as she looked over the snack table. She hadn't eaten since lunch and wouldn't mind a bite, but couldn't shake the feeling that she'd be doing something wrong if she took anything from the pristine, fully-stocked snack table. That feeling, of course, made no sense, because Pinkie running off to replenish this table's contents meant that people had to have been taking things. To say nothing of letting all of this food go to waste.

Unless she was lying, the table remaining untouched since we got here and it was just an excuse to step away and work on something in secret, but that doesn't make sense either because Sonata went looking for this table earlier, and she'd definitely help herself before asking whether there were rules or not.

Pinkie's story checked out. Maybe Adagio had just gotten here mere moments after the table had been refilled and the responsible Rainbooms left to do something else? This time, she heard the footsteps behind her just a second before the voice.

"I'd go for the donuts, they're probably still warm!"

"That means the icin's still warm too, Rainbow," twanged what Adagio guessed to be the only southern voice in CHS, barring the girl's immediate family, "it'd get all over her fingers."

Adagio turned to face them, finding Rainbow to be wearing a shiny, silvery top hat as she grinned.

"Then they're finger-lickin' good!" She chuckled in response to the dull glare Applejack gave her for this, which smelled of an inside joke, before looking to Adagio. "But if you're worried about dripping stuff on your clothes, I'm pretty sure the cookies are finger-gunk free."

Deciding against asking about snack table rules, she quickly grabbed a cookie. "Hello again. What have you two been up to?" She took a bite while waiting for their answer, making a note that the chocolate chips were still warm and gooey.

"I just got out of a song with Pinkie," Rainbow replied while indicating her hat, "and ran into AJ on the way back."

"Ah ain't been doin' much," shrugged Applejack, "just wanderin', talkin' to people, waitin' fer the new year." She glanced around the room. "Ain't seen Aria 'er Sonata since we was all sittin' together, though, they go home?"

"Sonata should be with Rarity, but I admit I haven't seen Aria in a while either." Angling for any reason to talk to one of these six, she kept a casual tone while idly glancing around the room. "I suppose, for people who don't need to sabotage parties for a dark harvest, staying together isn't a priority?"

For a moment, the looks on their faces made her fear that neither understood a word of that question, but it seemed that they were just remembering whom they were speaking to as Rainbow scratched her head.

"Everybody does kinda wander and do whatever, now that'cha mention it." She smiled. "But that's what makes it a party!"

Making a show of raising an eyebrow and tilting her head, Adagio raised the cookie to her mouth again, taking another bite after asking "Do tell?"

This seemed to genuinely confuse Rainbow again. "Uh... Haven't you guys, like, been to parties? For fun, I mean?"

"They have, but even had I not kept my involvement professional, I doubt the three of us would have gone about it as you girls do." She smiled a little. "Got any pointers?"

As she popped the rest of the cookie into her mouth, Rainbow and Applejack shared a glance.

"Well," the farmer offered, "what do you wanna do? What'dja have in mind when ya agreed to come over?"

"Nothing, really," she answered with a light shrug, "Sunset found us sitting on a park bench and suggested that coming here might be more fun."

"Oh." Smiling, she thumbed over her shoulder. "Trixie's gettin' a little group together to tell ghost stories in another room, wanna join in?"

It wasn't likely that she'd get anything useful out of teenagers trying to scare each other, but the chance existed that, once the first speaker's tales ran dry, someone else would be urged to share. That seemed like her best shot right now, so Adagio shrugged and made an 'after you' motion with an arm, following the two Rainbooms to a room with a closed door. When Rainbow opened it, she immediately stepped in, emitting a cry of alarm that was immediately answered with several more. A male voice was heard from within.

"Yeesh, that's some timing!"

Rainbow sounded annoyed. "What's with this sheet hanging in front of the door?!"

Trixie responded in kind. "It's to preserve the ambiance, now get in here or get lost!"

Seeing Applejack shake her head, an amused smile on her lips, Adagio followed her in and they closed the door, minding the bedsheet in the now-darkened room. In front of them was a small circle of seats, occupied by Trixie Lulamoon, Octavia Melody, Sandalwood, and Cherry Crash, the only source of light being a phone with a fireplace app (complete with flickering light and the occasional crackling noise) pointed at the ceiling as it rested on a little table in the middle.

"Come, coooome," urged Trixie with slow, theatrical arm-motions, "come and be regaled with..." her voice dropped to a menacing whisper, "tales, of the Spirit World!"

A pause followed as the three newcomers carefully found unoccupied chairs and were seated, Rainbow being the first to break it. "Like what?"

"Few people know this," Trixie continued as though she were the host of a paranormal investigation show, "but Canterlot is rife with ghostly activity and supernatural happenings..."

"Uh, we all know that," Cherry cut in, "there've been two of 'em at our school."

"Not those," Trixie hissed, momentarily breaking character, "far older stories, some as old as the town itself! Beware, ye homeowners, for hauntings are especially common in our sleepy little town. The first was said to be the ghost of a barber, who went mad when all of his trimming scissors broke on the same day."

Adagio coughed.

"Now he stalks the mall by night, chasing after intruders with jagged, rusty scissors!" This didn't win any heart-felt shows of fright, beyond Octavia's mild trembling, but she was kind of a chicken and this was just the warm-up act anyway, so she went on. "Many more are said to have lost their minds under mysterious circumstances, or been influenced by forces beyond their understanding! One such incident is said to have occurred by the city docks; over a dozen people finding themselves there, lured by unknown forces for unknown purposes, a mystery to this-..." Dropping the theater voice entirely, Trixie raised an eyebrow. "Why are you raising your hand?"

Visibly uncomfortable even in the dim lighting, Adagio avoided meeting anyone's eyes. "I don't know about the barber becoming a ghost, but those last two might have been me." She was surprised that even the two Rainbooms responded with confusion. "Aria, Sonata, and I have difficulties getting our hair cut and I once organized a small band of people to work at the docks to earn money for cell phones, with my usual method at the time." They kept staring at her. She shrugged. "It was an extremely rare instance in which we had more power than money, so..."

Trixie scratched her head. "Huh. Well," she said while switching back into her Drama Club narration, "another tale comes to us from these very suburbs, mere meters from houses just like this one... Many years ago, night-going citizens of Canterlot are said to have witnessed a strange figure roaming these streets." The pause was only meant for dramatic effect, but she felt beads of sweat forming on her own forehead as Adagio visibly scanned her memory. "Some claimed to see only a shadow moving down the sidewalk, but others shared sightings of a pale woman with long, black hair, humming an eerie tune as-"

"Hey Adagio," Cherry Crash rudely interrupted with a playful grin, "you ever dyed your hair black?"

Even though she had been half-expecting a question like that, Adagio still felt a faint blush as the rest of the room joined Trixie in staring straight at her. Averting her eyes as best she could in that situation, she idly twirled a lock of hair around a finger. "...For about two years, yes."

There were giggles over the sound of Trixie deflating, Applejack scratching her head. "You dyed yer hair?"

"As I said, our hair can be difficult to deal with, so all of us have tried new looks over the years."

"And," Rainbow asked with a hint of concern, unknowingly cutting Adagio's hope of asking all present about their own hair-related experiences short, "walked around in the middle of the night singing to yourself?"

"Not recreationally." She only got more odd looks for this, so she opted to spell it out. "It was part of a plan; we saw a few movies featuring beautiful, but monstrous women, I agreed to play the part, we put together a simple costume, and the hope was that after just a few nightly strolls, there would be enough fear and panic in the populace to bring us a feast."

"I thought your thing was arguments?"

"Negative energy takes many forms, Rainbow Dash, and if enough of a fervor had been whipped up, we might have been able to feed on the whole city at once." There was a pause. Noting that those around her seemed more afraid after that sentence than at any point during Trixie's stories, she shrugged. "For better or worse, it didn't really get that far, the people of this world not taking nocturnal horrors as seriously as they did in Equestria. If anything, they treated our 'wandering woman' routine like a game with which to frighten each other, not unlike..." She took a slow look around the dimly-lit room, the fireplace app still flickering in the middle. "...exactly what we're doing now. I haven't kept an eye on what that became, but I wouldn't be surprised if this very tendency had evolved our little pranks around town into stories of their own."

Octavia's curiosity just barely won out over fear. "P-pranks?"

"It started with Sonata carving 'thanks for letting me out' on the inside of a closet door in an old house of ours. Then came a series of pictures, taken during Aria's brief fascination with photography in the early nineties, that were just wrong enough as to evoke feelings of unease in the viewer." She chuckled. "It's funny what camera angle and a little lighting can do, but I'm not sure if hiding those images all around a house actually went anywhere."

She would have gone into a little more detail, but the last thing they needed was legal trouble, even all these years later. Thankfully, no one asked how they did what they did, Trixie more interested in what.

"You three were behind the phantom abductions?!" Moot point for her electric-campfire ghost story session though it was now, the raised eyebrow told her that Adagio hadn't heard this one before. "The old photos showing the last things people saw before they were taken by the cursed house, anyone who finds one sure to be dragged off to the underworld by-"

"Just a bunch of pictures, Trixie." She idly inspected her nails. "Unless something else happened to move into that house after, I suppose." The perturbed noises drew her attention back up to the group, most of whom she found looking back at her with considerable discomfort.

"Haha," a slightly paler Sandalwood forced out, along with a smile, "good one!"

Her head cocked as she looked at Adagio, Trixie crossed her arms. "So, the night lady legend was you pulling Scooby Doo antics?"

"It wasn't about real estate or buried treasure for us, but essentially, yes."

"The many cases of people acting weird around town are from you three brainwashing people for stuff other than arguments?"

"Honestly, they don't seem to need our help with that one."

"The creepy stuff people find in houses was just a bunch of pranks?"

"Pranks with a purpose, but yes." Adagio smiled. "My favorite was when we got hold of a shiny, new chainsaw, cut some of my hair off (still black from the 'night lady' caper), wrapped it around some extra-large scissors, wrote a vaguely-worded note implying that an ill fate would befall anyone who touched the scissors, then left the scissors on top of the note in the bottom of an otherwise empty drawer."

Rainbow snickered. "Nice!"

Turning away with a huff, Trixie scowled. "This town really is boring."

Again, as though fearing the answer, Octavia tentatively spoke up. "What about the Tantabus House?"

Adagio tilted her head in confusion. "The what?"

There came an uneasy pause. Cherry Crash dared press on.

"Like, the most haunted house in the city? Spooky old place owned by a blood-crazed serial killer back in like the fifties?"

"Hm..." An old, familiar part of her savored the anticipation and dread in the room, almost disappointed that all she could pay it off with was a shrug. "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Another heavy silence. Octavia turned to Trixie, keeping her voice as quiet as she could while remaining audible.

"Does that mean that one is real?"

"Uhh..."

"WELP," announced Sandalwood as he hopped to his feet, "think that's enough sitting around in the dark for a while, later!"

"Yea," muttered Cherry as she got up to follow him out, "gonna just, go somewhere, not be alone for a few weeks..."

Octavia didn't say anything as she too vacated the room, but she was definitely quicker about it than the rest.

"Hah," chuckled Trixie as she got up to flick the lights on and pocket her phone from the table, "that actually went better than usual. The fear factor definitely took a hit, but I've never gotten people to actually run out of the room before! Thanks for the back-up, Dazzle."

"Hm?" She was startled by Rainbow clapping her on the shoulder.

"Yea! Trixie's stories are always lame-" an indignant scoff was ignored completely, "-but this was actually kinda spooky!"

"We should see if we can find Sunset," chuckled Applejack as she straightened her hat, "bet it'd be a load off her mind to hear 'bout some'a this."

"Any clue where she is?"

"Nah, but it ain't that big a house. Let's get to it!"

Only once the two (and Trixie) were gone did it occur to Adagio that she likely could have just followed them without issue or need for explanation. Possibly offering her direct knowledge of the ghost stories' origins to earn a little trust while she was at it.

Note to self; Sunset Shimmer may or may not have a particular fear of the supernatural. That didn't come up when we were looking into this school.

Regardless, as Applejack said, it wasn't exactly a mansion, so she was sure that, bar Rarity, whose location she more or less knew anyway, she could find any of the Rainbooms if she just went looking for them. Admittedly, her focus right now was returning to the snack table.

Further note to self; quit forgetting meals, you dolt!!

She was just as likely to meet a Rainboom there, right? Perhaps then, she could revise the plan; embrace the tendency they had to get her to talk and make note of exactly how they did so shortly afterward. This instance with the ghost stories had been straightforward, her speaking up in the hope of speeding things along (it was getting close to midnight), them asking about events in which she was directly involved, but perhaps the next would show her something new.

Maybe Aria is at the snack table as well, she thought as she too vacated the little room, she must have picked up something since we split up...

Though most of her attention was on the cat curled up and purring on her stomach as she lay on Rarity's bed, Aria could still manage conversation. "You've seriously been expecting some kinda payback this whole time even though it's you guys who hold all the cards?"

Sitting next to her, Fluttershy wasn't quite convinced. "If you really wanted, I don't think any of you would have needed magic to hurt us."

"Okay. And then what?"

"Um... you'd have, revenge?"

"And all your minions mad at us, especially if we got all of you, minus Twilight Sparkle, who'd be her own can of worms to deal with. Then it'd be a coin-toss between grabbing what we could and running or figuring out where that portal was and taking our chances in Equestria without magic, and because I know you don't really know just what that means, imagine what coming to this world with no cash or magic would be like."

While she disagreed with the word 'minions,' Fluttershy could understand how Aria might see the rest of CHS that way. Instead, she focused on the last part. "I-I might actually have some idea." She smiled a little as Aria glanced at her in confusion. "Sunset told us that when she first arrived here, she would have been in a lot of trouble if she hadn't run into Flash Sentry in the first few days."

Of course, it was Sunset's choice to go leaping into strange portals in the first place and not immediately return when she figured out her horn was missing, but according to her, she'd been too full of pride and hurt feelings to go back before it closed.

Aria chuckled. "He helped her get on her feet, huh? I'm kinda glad for her, because figuring stuff out on our own sucked." Well, mostly. The occasional fun discovery, like air-conditioning and chocolate, made some days brighter than others. Returning to the previous topic, she shrugged. "But yea, if you're really worried about us getting payback, Sonata's the one you should talk to."

"R-really?"

"Yup." She contented herself with lightly scratching under the cat's chin, which was met with fuzzy enthusiasm, but another glance at Fluttershy showed confusion, so she kept talking. "You probably expected me to say 'talk to Adagio,' but like... well, there was this one time Sonata had trouble with some ants..."

Aria came home one day to find a very sad-looking Sonata staring at a soaking wet, partially-melted, jumbo-sized chocolate bar in the kitchen sink. Pretty sure she wouldn't be blamed and thus responsible for cleaning up the mess, she stepped close enough for a better look.

"Ain't that the thing you nabbed the last time we went to an amusement park?"

Not looking away from her ruined prize, Sonata's eyebrows knitted. "Ants got to it. I tried to wash 'em off, but now the chocolate's all tap-watery."

Turning to walk away, Aria rolled her eyes. "That's what happens when you leave food out, dumbass."

Little did she know what simmered in the easy-bake oven of Sonata's mind.

"Wait a minute, I thought you said even bugs wouldn't go near the three of you."

"They don't have to be near us if we're not near the food they're after."

"Oh."

The next day, she found Adagio standing by a window, looking out at the porch. Coming closer and brushing her hair out of the way for a peek, she dared ask.

"What's in that bag?"

Adagio answered without looking away. "Chocolate-coated ants, I think. She said something about 'tracking where they came from' when I found her crawling around the kitchen floor this morning."

They observed silently as Sonata, looking down at the grass, smiled widely and upended the bag over a particular spot in the lawn. Not for the first time, the two let their crossed arms and raised eyebrows speak for them when she came back inside. She answered with a smile.

"I found the ants that ate my big ol' candy bar, so I went out, got a bag of choco-ants, and poured 'em all over the anthill!"

The other two sirens shared a glance, then looked back at her, but she didn't seem to pick up the question this time.

"I'm gonna go boil some water now, later!"

And back to the kitchen she went. Aria and Adagio shared another look, silently agreed it wouldn't be worth the headache, and hoped she didn't set the house on fire this time.

"Th-this time?"

"It only happened once, but it didn't burn that long and we didn't really like that house anyway."

"Uh... okay. What happened next?"

"Well, a couple hours later..."

A cold fear seeped into Aria's bones when she found Adagio at the window again, because this time, their fits-of-borderline-psychosis-prone leader was giggling to herself.

Never a good sign!

She dared come closer, doing her best to keep a level tone. She failed miserably. "H-hey, Dagi?"

It did not make her feel better that the only reaction was to make a 'come hither' motion with one hand, Adagio not looking away from the window as she brushed her hair out of the way so Aria could see. Tentatively obeying the implied command, Aria stepped forward to see Sonata outside, this time wearing oven mitts on both hands as she carried a large, steaming jug out to that spot on the lawn.

"It's the melted remains of her chocolate bar," Adagio startled Aria by explaining with a sadistic grin, "and now that most of the colony is outside, eating the chocolate ants she poured earlier..."

They watched as Sonata carefully poured the scalding-hot, melted chocolate over the same spot, cackling maniacally. Even from where they stood, they could hear her.

"Ya like chocolate?! WELL HOW DO YA LIKE DAT CHOCOLATE?!"

This alone had Adagio laughing for hours, but Aria was worried she'd well and truly lost her mind after Sonata enacted the final phase of her plan that evening; drilling a hole right where the hill was when the chocolate had cooled, sticking a huge, lit firecracker in the hole, lighting the fuse, getting some distance, and dancing with glee as her vengeance was served in a chocolatey explosion of red, white, and blue.

"So, to re-cap: Ants ate her chocolate, so she worked out where they lived, got them to eat fellow ants by pouring chocolate-covered ones all over the place, poured extremely hot chocolate over those ants to cook them alive as they unwittingly engaged in cannibalism, and blew up the hill with fireworks. Adagio was cracking up about it for days, jokingly, I hope, saying that while she'd take care of making the world adore us and all that, we should let Sonata come up with any future revenge plans." She shrugged. "So, again, if you're still worried we might try to 'get back at you,' ask Sonata, not me."

Not that Aria was complaining as she gently stroked Opal, but it took a few minutes for Fluttershy to get her thoughts together and form a reply. Maybe that was hard to do when she was all pale and wide-eyed like that.

Distantly ashamed for it though she was, Fluttershy couldn't focus on those poor ants at that moment, but the lives of her friends were definitely more important. "...Did, d-did she say anything about us after the battle?"

Aria chuckled. "Nah, she was bummed out like me and Adagio, 'cuz even she knew there was nothing we could really do after that."

Somehow, despite her relief, Fluttershy didn't feel any better. She couldn't think of anything to say before Aria went on.

"If ya ask me, Sonata's revenge depends more on how easy it is to pull off than weight of the offense anyway. There've been times people seriously pissed us off and she did nothing, times we were barely slighted and she-" Aria's eyes widened for a split second, "-err, did, things thatIprobablyshouldn'ttalkaboutforlegalreasons..."

Fluttershy blinked twice.

Aria cleared her throat. "And like, she hasn't really come after me and I've given her more grief than anyone over the years. Maybe that's because she gives me grief just by existing most of the time, plus the fact that if one of us ever seriously hurt the other, Adagio'd kill us both." At this, Fluttershy gave her the saddest look yet, and that was actually saying something from this girl.

"Is it really painful for the three of you to be together?"

Opal hopped off as Aria quickly sat up. "What?! No! It's just, not everyone can be all rainbow-sunshine-superfriends like you guys all the time!"

Something clicked in Fluttershy's head, drawing a tiny smile. "We aren't like that all the time. Did you hear about the Anon-A-Miss incident?" The look on Aria's face said she had definitely forgotten about it. "And, long before that, like Adagio said, we were arguing even though we weren't under your influence, so, I don't know if anyone can be-" she tried very hard not to giggle, "-rainbow-sunshine-superfriends all the time, but has your group been that way even once?"

Looking away, Aria crossed her arms. "Well, not really, but-"

Fluttershy knew what was going to happen next, but just as with Sunset, she felt it had to be done. She had probably kept Aria away from everyone else for too long anyway, so she just asked.

"Have you ever wanted to?"

Truth be told, the hesitation just before Aria's vague, stuttery reply was all the answer she needed, but Fluttershy didn't interrupt as Aria rapidly fumbled sentence fragments before getting too flustered to continue, getting off the bed, and saying she needed some air as she left the room. Alone, Fluttershy idly pet Opal a little more. She wasn't sure about the others, but for her, pushing the sirens toward friendship (or at least, a brighter, warmer version than what they currently had) was deliberate.

It was also very manipulative.

It wasn't evil in Fluttershy's mind, because she was doing it in the hope of those she was pushing living much happier lives, but she couldn't deny that it wasn't completely honest, either. It wasn't as though she was leading anyone toward false conclusions, just not being as forthcoming as she could be while (hopefully) helping them to realize what they may have already known.

Adagio's words from earlier still echoed in her head.

"I don't know how you think our magic used to work, but we never influenced anyone's behavior to do what they'd have never done otherwise. Every argument, every harsh word, every thrown punch, every clapping pair of hands... all of it was there before they heard us sing. Our voices, in performance just as much as in inhibition-nullifying magic, just brought it all to the surface."

The way Fluttershy saw it, this was like that; she was bringing existing feelings closer to the surface, only with positive energy this time! She was sure the sirens would understand, and if everything worked out, maybe she and Adagio could even work together at this, if it ever seemed necessary.

Provided Fluttershy could conquer her fear of Adagio first. And Sonata.

"Seriously," she wondered to herself as she gently lifted Opal into the air, cute little feet dangling and tail lightly swishing back and forth, "who knew Aria would turn out to be the least intimidating one?"

"Mrrow."

Braiding Sonata's hair had gone well, after Rarity managed to convince her that she had no 'weird rashes' to discuss. She wasn't sure exactly how it had happened, but in trying various other topics to divert Sonata's attention from her worrying focus on various forms of sickness and injury, they had somehow returned not only to the subject of love lives, but of the romantic kind.

Mostly. Rarity would take it at this point. They continued the talk as Sonata tried on hats.

"So like, almost every one that didn't just drop me and try to get into Aria or Adagio's pants turned out to be some sorta freako, like the guy with the candy van or the one that only ever wanted to hang out near graveyards, which just gave me more reason to play with Buzz and Woody!"

"I-I see."

Rarity had lucked into the knowledge that if she just didn't say anything about Sonata's... alternatives to human contact, she would move right along.

"I guess it kinda doesn't matter, though, because even when I found a nice one, I ended up breaking it off because there was always that little 'but what if I go back to Equestria,' in the back of my head, y'know?"

Handing Sonata the fireman's helmet (just to see how it fit with the boots), Rarity nodded. "I can't say Twilight's relationship with Flash is in good standing at the moment."

"Totally!" She faced the mirror to turn back and forth with the helmet on her head. Shiny! "Even if I kept him, what would he turn into over there? What if he's not sea-worthy? Or what if he's something super tiny like a breezie? How would I get it on with a breezie?!"

"I'm, sure I don't know, Darling."

"But, I guess, since we're pretty sure we're here for good now, maybe I could take another crack at it some time?"

When Sonata took off the helmet, Rarity passed her a green beanie. "You haven't tried since the last time we saw you?"

Sonata frowned, which did nothing to bring out the beanie's full potential. "Nnnah... we were kinda... down about stuff for a while, y'know?"

Rarity smiled in sympathy. "Of course." She had learned the hard way not to equate torn stitches or stained fabrics to personal tragedies that others dealt with, opting to say nothing further this time.

Suddenly, Sonata brightened. "But like, it's gotta be getting better, because tonight's the most fun I've had in months!"

The smile widened. "Oh?"

"I don't even remember the last time we went out and like, did something! It's been like there was this big, heavy blanket of what's-the-freakin'-point over our heads and now we're taking a little peek out, and there's colors!"

I shouldn't feel guilty. They didn't ask us for help, they ran off! Of course, Sunset didn't exactly 'ask' either, she was, essentially, assigned to us.

Her father had once told her that sometimes terrible things happen without it being anyone's 'fault,' that no matter what anyone was doing or meant to do at the time, there were unfortunate accidents. The sirens spending these last so many months feeling empty and hopeless, Rarity believed, wasn't something anyone wanted, but it definitely happened, and now that they were here, the only thing to do was help them out of it. From the looks of things, they were more or less ready to heal by now, so the only thing to do was help them to it!

"Well," she replied with a grin, "you're all more than welcome to join us in 'doing stuff' in the future."

At this, Sonata timidly looked over her shoulder, staring wide-eyed as a rosy blush spread over her face.

Immediately seeing where it was going this time, Rarity wasn't able to completely avoid tinting red herself as she responded in complete deadpan. "Not like that, Darling."

"But you keep calling me 'Darling.'"

"I call everyone that!"

Amazed, Sonata's eyes widened even further. "...You really get around, huh?"

"Ugh!"

The thought again occurred to her that unfortunate accidents happened.

Author's Notes:

Trixie is such a fun character.

I was tempted to allude to people losing their memories for no apparent reason (Wallflower), but this story was started long before Forgotten Friendship and I still don't plan to include anything post Rainbow Rocks, so it wasn't going to pay off if I did. Plus, I'm already doing that in another story.