As was so often the case during lunchtime, the Canterlot High cafeteria was abuzz with activity, with students from every class mingling in the ways they always did, from the musicians to the sports teams to everyone in-between, just generally hanging out with one another. There were smiles and happy times all over, and all-in-all it was a particularly pleasant place today. However, there was one person here for whom smiling did not seem to be the agenda for the day, and as usual, it was Aria. The middle child of the Siren sisters sat alone, as she often did, upon one of the cafeteria's many tables, eating her meal. As she ate bite after bite of her lunch, she didn’t notice, until the last minute, a bouncy pink-haired girl walking beside her. As Pinkie sat beside the lone girl, she put on a massive smile, before speaking in her usually cheerful manner.

"Hey there, Ari! Liking the food?"

Aria turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure. Its fine, I guess."

Pinkie picked up on the bad mood immediately, but rather than seem concerned, she simply giggled, giving a playful punch to Aria's arm, which, as one might expect, got on her nerves immediately. But, ignoring this, Pinkie just kept on speaking in that usual upbeat manner of hers.

"Cheer up, silly! The sun is shining, the day is good and everything is happy! There's no reason to be glum!"

Aria let out a dry chuckle at that.

"Oh really? I seem to remember you having the gloomiest sister in the world. Maud, wasn't it? I don't hear you giving her a hard time over it."

But Pinkie merely snorted at that and waved her hand a little.

"Maud and me have an understanding. She's smiles on the inside, and that's good enough for me!"

Seeing the ceaseless grin on Pinkie's face, Aria rolled her eyes and let out a grunt before getting back to her food.

"Whatever."

Pinkie looked to her current companion, wanting to say yet another cheerful thing to her, but, she hadn't the chance to do so, as mere moments later, one of the other students, a boy, began to walk towards their table. Just as he was about to sit down upon it, Aria glared angrily at the guy.

"Does it look like we want some company, pal?"

The anger in her voice was almost palpable, and it did its intended job, scaring the guy immediately, as he then darted off to find another table. Seeing this, Pinkie put on as disapproving an expression as she was capable of wearing, looking to Aria with a slight frown.

"You know, that wasn't very nice, Ari."

But the Siren merely looked to her with a frown of her own.

"I'll act nice when I feel nice. And right now, I don't!"

With that, Aria got back to her meal, leaving Pinkie to look at her in silence for a while. In time, however, the bubbly girl put on yet another smile, getting up from her chair and moving behind Aria. Before the latter got a chance to react, she found a pair of pink fingers reaching from behind to grab onto the corners of her mouth, which were then forcibly turned upwards into a smile. Naturally, Pinkie's happy-go-lucky voice came soon afterwards.

"Come on, Ari! Let's turn that frown upside down!"

Pinkie kept her fingers there for a while, completely oblivious to the anger she was causing in Aria. When she finally did let go, she looked at the other girl's face, half-expecting her to retain the smile she'd put there. Instead, Aria's mouth instantly morphed back onto a more sour look, perhaps even more so than in had been before.

"Are you sure you're not just a pink clone of my sister? Because you and Sonata are both just as unbearably cheerful."

Pinkie placed her hands firmly on her hips at that.

"Oh Ari! I'm sure we can get that frown off your face somehow!"

But Aria just turned away at that.

"My frown is perfectly fine exactly where it is, Pinks. Now can we please drop the subject?"

Pinkie raised an eyebrow.

"Geez! Why are you always so grouchy?"

At that, Aria turned to her and narrowed her eyes.

"Why? Why?! Why do you think?! My sisters and I got our asses handed to us by some old bearded weirdo back in the day, got banished to this wretched world, we had to scrape by on the barest of negative energy, and just when it finally started to look up for us, guess what happened?"

Pinkie looked genuinely ponderous at that before, to Aria's annoyance, shrugging her shoulders.

"I dunno. What did happen? Was it something nice, like getting a whole bunch of sunshine and rainbows and stuff?"

Utterly flabbergasted that such a question would even be asked, Aria's expression became one of rage.

"Oh, we got some rainbows alright! Right in the face! Thanks to you and your friends, we have no hope of getting back what we used to. So you'll forgive me if I feel well within my rights to be as miserable as I damned well please!"

With that, Aria slumped into her chair, folding her arms and looking away from Pinkie with an indignant huff. In the silence that followed between the two, Pinkie just stared at her for a while, being calm and still in a way that most wouldn't think her capable of being. After a good couple of minutes of this, Pinkie slowly took a seat beside Aria again, speaking far softer than before.

"You know...I didn't want to hurt you and your sisters, you do know that, right? None of us did. You were just being mean to everyone and, well...we kinda had to do it."

Aria turned to her, eyes still bearing a tint of anger.

"Sure, I get that. But that still doesn't mean you get to tell me to be happy when I don't want to be."

At that, Pinkie, to Aria's shock, actually nodded in response.

"Okay then."

Aria gained a look of confusion.

"Erm...okay what?"

Pinkie put on a small smile before explaining.

"I mean if you want to be all...you know...grouchy and stuff, then I'll just let you do that. What I want, Aria, is to make people happy, and forcing you to do that is pretty much going to make you as unhappy as possible. So if you say you don't want me to come along and cheer you up, or put a big smile on your face...then I'm okay with that."

Aria looked her over, half-expecting her to just be joking about what she'd just said.

"You...you mean that?"

Pinkie nodded.

"Sure. You feel however you wanna feel. And if you wanna feel different...maybe if you wanna feel like smiling and laughing...you come to old Pinkie...promise?"

Another silence fell between them, during which, Aria felt immensely uncomfortable while looking at the earnest look on Pinkie's face. There was also shame there, as the purple-haired girl looked away from her, letting out a sigh in a manner than could only be described as defeat.

"...Sure. And...thanks, I guess."

Pinkie put on another massive smile before reaching over and patting Aria on the shoulder.

"No problem. It's what friends are for, right?"

At that, Aria, in spite of the dour way she'd been acting before, actually let out a brief chuckle at that.

"Yeah...I guess they do."

Seeing the more cheerful look on Aria's face, Pinkie actually gained an uncharacteristically sly smile upon her own.

"Well well well...guess I can turn that frown upside-down!"

At that, Aria looked a little annoyed, only to once again find herself let out a small laugh.

"Yeah...I guess you can."