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!