Our New Life

Chapters

What now?
Back to School
New life, new friends
Secret Soft Sides
Football match? Or boxing match?
Mortality
Lies, secrets and more tacos
Sunset, Sonata and Tacos

What now?

Until moments ago the Sirens had the entire school under their control, even when the Rainbooms had shown up, the battle was in their favour. It wasn't until Sunset Shimmer had picked up the microphone and started singing, that the siren's song had suddenly become much harder for the three sisters to sing. The Rainbooms took the opportunity to get back on their feet and begin singing with a vengeance, their voices formed a giant alicorn that sent a laser towards the opposition. The three sirens, Adagio, Aria and Sonata looked up just as the huge rainbow engulfed them with the magic of friendship. It burnt their throats like acid, but it caused no visible damage. Singing had suddenly become harder for the three and their ears began to ring. Their hearts and throats felt like they were on fire, hot enough to melt, but determination pushed them on. They used a burst of their remaining magic to attempt to repel the rainbow, causing their eyes to regain the red colour they became during a powerful song. It lasted only a moment before their eyes reverted back and they could feel the powers they onced possessed dissolving in the positive energy, becoming just a dying blaze before their ruby hearts cracked and shattered, forever broken.

The Dazzlings fell to the stage, due to the height from which they fell it was painful, but the pain of their broken hearts was stronger. The three looked at the shards of their ruby pendants and tried to piece them back together, only to become more distressed when the dull fragments just fell apart again. Seeing that their efforts were in vain, they stood up and tried to sing. What would normally have been the voices worthy of angels, was replaced by the awful screeching of banshees, their throats burnt and food from the crowd was thrown at them. The powerless sirens fled the stage with tears pouring from their eyes, only Adagio was still clutching the broken jewel once worn around her neck.

Aria, Sonata and Adagio ran and ran, not once looking back at the disaster they had caused yet suffered from. A hotel came into view causing the three to run faster in the building's direction. With a song the Dazzlings were once able to get whatever they wanted with nothing in return, the hotel room was one of those things, along with everything else they needed. They made for the entrance of the hotel as fast as they could, only to be stopped by two bouncers positioned outside to guard the door. The biggest one lifted his muscular arm and pointed at the three girls.

"You!" he yelled, "You have ten minutes to pack your stuff and get the hell out of this hotel or we will remove you and your belongings by force."

The three looked up and saw the bouncers glaring daggers, urging them to collect their things quickly. No clever comeback. No resistance. No singing. The realization that they were powerless hadn't quite hit the sirens yet, but their commonsense told them that without magic they stood no chance in a fight against two burly guards. The Dazzlings just did as they were told, scared and lost without their powers. Aria, packed her music, clothes and books first, and then went to get her phone and games. Adagio, Got her magazines, clothes and phone, before pulling out a large book from under her bed. Sonata had a book the same as Adagio's, it was full of over two thousand years of memories, things they had all done together, old drawings and photographs; it caused Sonata to give a small smile when she looked at it. The three quickly packed their possessions and left the hotel before the bouncers could come knocking. Tears fell from their eyes as they left the warmth of the hotel and stepped out into the cold night air.

The wind was harsh and frosty, biting at the Dazzlings exposed fingers and faces. Thunder could be heared and lighting flashed from the sky as rain started to pour down, soaking the three sirens. The water normally felt good to them, it reminded them of their home in seas of Aquestria, but that night it only reminded them of everything they had lost, chilling them even more.

None of them really spoke on as they wandered aimlessly through Canterlot, it wasn't until Adagio suggested staying at an old, boarded up cottage they had seen on the way to school one day that sound could be heard from the trio. They continued to walk at a slow, steady pace, each Dazzling feeling sorry for themselves and each other. Not another word was spoken until they entered the rundown building. It wasn't hard getting in as the door was already hanging off its hinges. Aria, took her phone out and used a torch app to shine light inside the dreary, old cottage. The old owner had left nothing except a creaky bed, a moth-eaten fabric sofa and a rotting, empty cabinet. Aria sat on the bed and focused her gaze to Adagio.

"This is all your fault! If you'd have just listened to me in the first place none of this would have happened!" she yelled, no longer crying but the sorrow in her words was evident.

Sonata had started to cry against the ragged sofa, while Adagio eerily stood silently. Aria looked over to where Sonata was sat, the pityful scene caused tears to form in her own eyes, as a siren she grew up learning that showing emotions was showing weakness, but she didn't care anymore.

"I-I'm sorry, Adagio! This is just a shock to me, I-I don't know what we'll do! That's why you're the leader, you've always had a-all the answers, not me. Tell me what to do, Adagio! I d-don't know what to do anymore!" Aria screamed, tears began to stream from her eyes.

Adagio had remained on the same spot with the same spaced-out look on her face.

"Fine then! D-don't help me! I'm going to sleep!" Aria sobbed, her face turned away to try and hide the tears.

She took out her purple, starry pajamas from her bag and changed into them before lying down on the sheet-less bed. The wind blew through a shattered window causing her to shiver. Sonata got off the sofa with tears still rolling down her face, she pulled out her own pajamas and began to put them on before also lying down next to Aria on the old bed to sleep, leaving Adagio alone with her thoughts.

The next morning, Aria, woke up to the sound of more crying. Turning around she saw Sonata sobbing without pause into the tattered mattress, upon further inspection she was still asleep. Aria gently shuck Sonata to wake her from her nightmare, even if it meant she'd wake up to another one. Sonata's eyes shot open and she jumped up to hug Aria.

"It was awful!" she sobbed into her sister's shoulder, "You and Adagio left me and I was all alone in this house, starving to death all by myself."

Aria hugged her back reassuringly, something she normally wouldn't do for the sake of her reputation, "I'd never leave you to starve all alone in these ruins, even if you are the worst."

Aria's small smile at the last part showed her sister that she was only joking.

"For realzies?" asked Sonata.

"Yeah Sonata, for realzies," replied Aria before getting off the bed.

She stood up and looked around the room, it all looked different in the sunlight. The pattern on the molting, floral carpet and faded wallpaper was visible, the design of it along with the cabinet made Aria suspect it was once the home of an elderly person. The sofa was also floral print. She was about to leave to look around the rest of the house when she saw a note attached to the rotten cabinet.

That wasn't there last night she thought to herself. Huh, it's from Adagio. Where is she anyway? "Adagio!" Aria called out, "...No answer, whatever. I guess I'll just have to read the note then."

Sonata got up when she could hear her shouting Adagio's name from across the room, so she wandered over to her sister see what was happening.

"What's going on, Aria? Where's Adagio?" she yawned.

Aria turned around, note in hand before replying, "I don't know. She left a note, I'll read it out loud for you."

Sonata nodded, walking over to hear what the letter said.

"Dearest sisters, I am sorry I let this happen to you and I hope that one day you can forgive me. It was me who lead you down the path of evil for my own selfish desires. I'm sorry Sonata, I took advantage of your naivety and innocence, making you sing to hurt people. Aria, I am sorry I never listened to any of your ideas, you can be a bit moody and stubborn but you were never evil." Aria stopped to wipe away a tear before Sonata could see. "I've ruined your lives enough, I think it's time I go my separate way, let you live your own lives. I still haven't changed after two thousand years, but I believe with this chance the two of you can. Good-bye, I will miss you both greatly but I believe it's for the best. You never know, maybe we will meet each other again one day in a more happy time. Your's sincerely -Adagio Dazzle" Aria had reached the end of the letter and turned the note over, only to find it unsurprisingly blank.

The two cried again for a couple of minutes before Sonata spoke, "This is what happened in my nightmare! Now you'll leave me all alone too!" she sobbed.

Aria gave Sonata a serious face, wiping away the last of her tears.

"Don't even say that! Do you really think I'd do that to you? I'm sick of crying, I'm going back to the stage to get back the shards of heart I left there, are you coming or not?" asked Aria, her voice sounded scratchy and her throat felt raw, but she just blamed it on the recent crying.

Sonata slowly nodded and the two got dressed before leaving the house. Aria always tried to act tough to hide her soft side, many people thought she was just being mean to Sonata when she called her the worst, but really they were just joking with each other, Aria was just more skilled at insults and comebacks. Crying made Aria feel pathetic, she needed her harsh side to come back. She blamed herself and what she'd said last night for Adagio's departure, but would never admit it to anyone, she needed to stay strong for Sonata's sake.

Aria and Sonata began to walk around the back of the school to the stage, food had been left all over the grounds and the two sirens had to be careful not to step in anything.

"Oooooo, tacos!" Sonata smiled gleefully.

Aria faceplamed. "Don't eat that, just...don't."

Aria dragged sonata away from the spoiled food and closer to the stage where two short boys were sweeping up rotten fruit and hot dogs. They had learnt their names during the battle of the bands, they were the ones who performed the awful rap Sonata somehow enjoyed, Snips and Snails.

"Well look who decided to show their faces," one said, "If your here for your necklace jewels then you'll never get them back, the Rainbooms took them and there's no way they'll hand 'em over!".

Aria glared at the two angrily, she may have lost her powers, but she had taken many martial arts and boxing lessons over the centuries.

"Ooooh what you gonna do to us now, siren?" they taunted.

Aria jumped what looked like a near impossible height on to the stage, and grabbed the boy round his skinny neck, the other one fled.

"What is going on here?" yelled a demanding voice that made Aria quickly drop the terrified boy, who ran after his friend.

Turning round to face the direction of the voice, Aria saw Principal Celestia with a very stern look on her face.

Sonata also turned to look at the Principal before answering in her cheery manner of speaking, "We came back for our hearts."

Aria facepalmed, shaking her head and Celestia gave a look of confusion, "Your...hearts? I'm afraid I don't quite understand."

Aria jumped of the stage and put her hand over Sonata's mouth, preventing her saying anything else, before talking to the Principal, "She means the pendants that the Rainblossoms-or whatever they're called stole from us."

The Principal gave her another stern look, "Things like what you did are not easily forgiven, but it would be unfair of me not to give you a second chance. If you clean up all the mess you've made here, you can continue to come to this school and ask for your gems back in person, but I will have to find someone to keep an eye on you within the school grounds."

Aria glared, she hated school and she hated work, but Sonata answered before she could turn down Celestia's offer.

"For realzies, because that would be so cool! And then I can have taco tuesday! Of course we'll stay!"

"Great, you can get to work on that cleaning." Celestia handed a broom to each siren and returned to her office.

"Sonata?"

"Yes, Aria?"

"You're the worst."

Back to School

Sonata jumped backwards onto the creaky bed after long day of work cleaning up the mess she had helped to create. Aria sighed as she lay down on the sofa, using the armrest as a foot stool. Their first real school day didn't start until tomorrow, it had taken the two girls a whole day to clean up the mess they'd made, fortunately for them there had been no damage to the school building or field itself. Picking up all the empty food wrappers and cups had reminded the two of how hungry and thirsty they were though, so Aria unpacked some snacks from the hotel room and handed them to Sonata, who quickly unwrapped and ate them.

"Thanks." Sonata looked at Aria to see if she was going to eat any. "Why aren't you eating any? You haven't eaten anything for over two days now."

She didn't want Sonata to worry, but she didn't want to eat all the snacks at once either, they currently had no money to buy more food. "I just don't feel hungry after all that's happened lately," she lied, "Maybe I'll have something in the morning." Her stomach growled just after she'd finished speaking, and she hoped Sonata didn't hear it, she didn't appear to have noticed.

The two sirens' voices still sounded a bit husky, even after their crying had ceased, they had realized whilst they were still cleaning up Canterlot High's grounds. Neither one mentioned it, hoping it would pass, but their voices still sounded rough afterwards. Sonata's cheerful personality could still be heard through the way she spoke, but it was less high pitched and she sounded like she had a cold. Aria's voice was the same, but without the cheerful way of talking, in fact it made her sound even more moody and intimidating. All hopes of ever being able to sing again were gone for the time being.

Sonata and Aria began to pack their school bags in preparation for the next day. Aria had found a blanket that Adagio must have left for them, while preparing her things, so she threw it over the bed. Sonata packed a stuffed taco toy with a smiley face, it was apparently for 'good luck' and Aria packed the little money she actually had. The two left their bags at the bottom of the bed and got ready to go to sleep, they needed an early night before showing their faces at that school again.

Sun shone through the floral curtains, causing the two 'young' sirens to stir in their sleep. Aria rolled over, and a large THUMP could be heard as she fell out of bed. The noise woke up Sonata, who peered over the side bed and burst into a fit of giggling when she saw Aria on the floor, trying to get out of the blanket she was wrapped in.

"It's not funny, Sonata," huffed Aria, "help me up!"

"You're right, its not funny, it's hilarious!" Sonata made a quick video on her phone. "This is gonna go viral!"

"You're the worst, Sonata!" Aria got up and went for her bag. "Go get ready for school."

Sonata did as she was told, and the two got ready for their first day at school as normal teenagers. The clothes they would normally wear were dirty and they had nowhere to wash them, so they put on their hoodies. All dressed, the sirens grabbed their bags and started to walk to school, with their hoods up to avoid being recognized.

Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash, were sat beside the portal, it was the place they met up with their friends before school. Sunset was always there first, she had a habit of getting to places early, ever since she was Celestia's student she always liked arrive just before necessary just in case she was delayed getting somewhere. Rainbow Dash normally slept in and was late for school, but she always arrived early on Tuesdays, because she had swimming before school and had to wake up early. Rarity was nearly always right on time, not early, but not late. Applejack was an early riser, but she spent a few hours in the morning working on the farm, so she normally arrived at the same time as Rarity. Pinkie Pie would just randomly appear out of nowhere at a random time every morning, and Fluttershy normally arrived a couple of minutes early, after she'd finished her voluntary work at the animal rescue.

Sunset was doing some revision, and Rainbow was bouncing a multicolored ball against the soild side of the portal statue. A couple of rough sounding voices could be heard approaching the school, causing Sunset to look up from her revision guide. It was rare for other students to arrive to school so early, unless they were part of a before school sports club. Sunset knew the members of the school sports teams after Rainbow introduced them, she didn't recognize the voices though, and their faces were covered by a hoods. Sunset nudged Rainbow, making her miss and throw the rainbow ball through the portal. The sound of shattering glass could be heard coming from the other side, and she was sure she could hear Twilight's voice yell her name in an angry manner.

"Woah! What was that for, Suns-Oww!" Rainbow was cut off by her ball shooting out of the portal and hitting her on the head.

Sunset laughed at little before pointing at two hooded figures. "Do you recognize those two?"

Rainbow rubbed her head where the ball had hit her, before staring at the two as they approached the school building, and shrugged. "I don't think so. Maybe they're more new students, seem to be getting a lot of 'em lately."

"If they're are, they must be going to see Principal Celestia," said Sunset, "I'm going to go after them to offer to give them a tour of the school, it can't be as bad as when I showed the Dazzlings around. Do you wanna come too?"

Rainbow thought about it for a moment, normally being the element of loyalty, she'd wait for her other friends so that they'd have someone to talk to when they arrived; Sunset was always alright on her own. Making up her mind, Rainbow decided to tag along for a change and stood up to go with Sunset, she didn't know why but she felt like she should help show them around.

"Sure, I'll go."

Sonata burst into the Principal's office, Aria slowly followed her. The bin was full of all sorts of documents and letters, and pictures of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle could be see on a board, solely dedicated to the Fall Formal. Aria scowled when she saw the pictures, and turned to face the Principal.

"I see you're ready for your first school day," said Celestia, "Would you mind lowering your hoods while you're in the school building, please?"

As Aria and Sonata reluctantly lowered their hoods, a gasp could be heard the other side of the door, causing the rooms occupants to turn around. Sunset froze when she realized she had been descovered, Aria and the Principal seemed shocked too, although Sonata just smiled and waved at her as if nothing had ever happened.

Rainbow, who was stood around the corner, burst in and started yelling questions, "What are those two doing here?" She looked at the two and notaced that they looked genuinely scared of her. Why do they look so scared of me? Are they still dangerous? she asked herself. I kinda feel bad for yelling now - wait - what am I thinking? They don't deserve my sympathy.

It was Celestia who spoke next. "Sunset, I thought you were better than to go spying on your own Principal!" said Celestia with disappointment in her voice, "Explain yourself!"

"I thought there were more new students joining the school again." Sunset looked down at her feet, before looking up to meet the eyes of her superior again. "I just wanted a chance to show them around the school."

"Well as this is their first real school day, these two ARE technically new students." Celestia looked at Sunset and Rainbow thoughtfully. "I thought it only fair to give them a second chance, after all, this school has given a second chance to bigger threats than these two."

Sunset looked down at her feet again, she knew Celestia was right, it wasn't her place to protest.

"Woah, woah, woah! That was completely different! Sunset had help from me and my friends to help her reform," argued Rainbow, "Nobody would be willing to help those two."

"I agree that I need someone to keep an eye on these two in school, but I already have someone - or some people - in mind." Celestia turned her head and smiled gently at Sunset. "Since there's two of them I hope both of you don't mind watching them, your other friends can help you too of course."

Sonata didn't seem to be paying attention to anything the Principal was saying, but Rainbow, Sunset and Aria turned to look at each other before speaking in unison.

"What!?"

New life, new friends

Aria, Sonata, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer were all stood in Principal Celestia's office, trying to process their current situation.

"You must be joking! Those idiots tried to kill us!" Aria protested, "They won't help us."

"Sunset Shimmer's friends helped her to reform, I think they could do the same for you." Celestia stood at the back of the room so that she could see all four of her students. "If they could help Sunset after all she did to them in the past, they will have no problem forgiving and befriending you. Sunset is also a very helpful student, eager to make up for her past mistakes, I'm sure she has no objections to helping you."

"Celestia is right, I will help you in anyway I can, I know how hard it can be to fit in when everyone holds a grudge against you," Sunset said, smiling.

Rainbow muttered something inaudible before nodding in agreement. "Fine."

"Okay then, on your way, just remember that my door is always open." Celestia guided them out of her office and slammed the door shut the second they were all out.

Aria had a look of annoyance on her face, while Sonata stood next to her with a huge smile on her face. She went and stood closer to Sunset and Rainbow, who looked a little confused at the Siren's cheery demeanor and blind trust towards the people who fired rainbow lasers at her.

"We normally wait for the rest of our friends at the statue at the front of the school, so that's where we're heading now," Sunset said, looking over her shoulder at the two Sirens.

Sonata skipped over to join Sunset at the front, whistling a happy tune while Aria walked slower behind them all. Rainbow noticed she was falling behind a bit, so she fell back too, glancing behind her every so often to make sure Aria was still there. None of them spoke as they journeyed down the corridors, creating an awkward silence.

Sunset tried to break the silence by asking Sonata, who was skipping happily beside her, a question. "So why did you come this school in the first place?"

Sonata replied, "We were at a café when we saw a big rainbow, I wasn't sure what it was, but Adagio said it was Equestrian magic. That's why we followed it here."

Sunset saw Sonata stop smiling when she said Adagio's name, she wanted to ask what happened to her, but decided against it. Instead she decided to change the conversation. "What lessons have you two got?" Sunset turned around as she said it, so that she could see Aria too.

"I have literature first, then music, maths, history, biology and finally, art," said Sonata, her beaming smile returning.

Sunset compared Sonata's timetable with her own. "Looks like we have history and music together. What have you got, Aria?"

Aria glared at Sunset before reading out her timetable. "Literature, music, maths, physics, chemistry and physical education."

"Hey, let me see that!" Rainbow took Aria's timetable. "It's exactly the same as mine."

"Ughh, you mean I'm stuck with you all day?" groaned Aria.

"Hey, I chose my subjects before you even started at this school," answered Rainbow.

Sunset turned around to talk to the two girls. "Maybe it's not such a bad thing, you must have similar interests if you chose the same subjects, so you could be friends." Sunset smiled at the two.

"Fine! I'll try and get along with her, but only because this school is already unbearable enough with only one person I know," said Aria, "I suppose it could be worse; I could be stuck in a class with only the angry people I mind controlled."

Sunset smiled when Aria agreed to try and get along with Rainbow, and Rainbow herself seemed to smirk a little too. Sunset looked left as she walked and could see Sonata, still skipping whilst whistling a happy tune. It's hard to believe someone so happy and carefree was trying to take over the school only a few days ago, she thought to herself.

The four continued to walk and skip, until they reached the stone statue at the front of the school, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity were already there. As the four got closer Fluttershy's eyes went wide and she quickly scuttled behind the statue, out of sight. Applejack and Rarity noticed Fluttershy's odd behaviour and turned around to see what had scared her that time. Rarity put her hand over her mouth for dramatic effect as a look of shock came over her and Applejack looked a little shocked to before giving Sunset a questioning look.

"Sunset, y'all mind explaining just WHY ya have two Sirens with ya?" asked Applejack.

"Well, as Celestia thought it unfair to kick them out of CHS after letting me get away with...you know..., she told them they could stay," replied Sunset, "She wants us to help them fit in as much as possible after what happened, and since we arn't part of the angry mob they mind controlled, it's probably best that it's us helping them."

"Hmm, I suppose it was us who reformed ya, Sunset, but I jus' dunno if we can reform these two. They were born Sirens, y'all jus' turned a bit nasty after a bit of a disagreement with yer ol' teacher," Applejack said.

"Well if Sunset thinks it'll work, who am I to question her judgement. She herself was reformed, after all." Rarity looked over the two remaining Dazzlings. "We would have to help them with their future dress choices though, did you see what they were wearing when they first came here?"

Aria glared at her. "Those were in fashion the last time we attended a high school, just because you have to buy a new wardrobe every month to have style, it doesn't mean you should take it out on the people born with it." Aria smirked when she saw Rarity's expression turn to a insulted on.

Rainbow laughed as Rarity's overly dramatic personality, caused her to pull faces and strike poses, that would normally only ever be performed at a pantomime. Sunset sighed, Aria may have been getting along ok with Rainbow, but she needed to try to be nice to the others as well. She looked over at Sonata, the cheery Siren hadn't said much, her short attention seemed to be focused on a little, blue butterfly she was chasing around. Fluttershy had obviously noticed the butterfly too, because she started to come out of her hiding place and watched as Sonata chased the small insect. She still hadn't said anything, but Sunset was glad she was no longer hiding.

"Hey, whatcha doin-" Pinkie had randomly appeared from somewhere at some point, but her eyes bulged out of her head when she saw Aria and Sonata. "-arn't they two of the new girls who were a bit off, and tried to turn everyone into mindless fangirls and fanboys, that were willing to rip each other apart to be noticed by their idols?"

"That's us!" Sonata chimed happily.

"Ughh, if these two become friends, I'm probably gonna die of stress!" complained Aria.

"Haha yeah, Pinkie can be really random and crazy, but you'll get used to her...after a while." Rainbow looked at Aria with an amused look on her face. "I haven't really heard you talk much until now, so I don't know, but don't your voices sound a bit...scratchy-er than before - your normal talking voices I mean."

"I think it's another side affect of our pendants being destroyed." Aria glared at Rainbow as she said the last bit, causing her to look down at her own feet.

"Hey, it's not THAT bad. I think it makes you sound about twenty per cent cooler than before, even more intimidating and...stuff," said Rainbow, "but hey, It's nearly time for lessons to start, if you follow me I'll show you where first lesson is."

"Do I have a choice?" asked Aria.

"Nope," replied Rainbow before starting to make her way into the school building.

Sunset watched the two leave the group. She wasn't worried about Aria getting into trouble, she was with Rainbow all day and Sonata didn't look like she was planning anything. Then again, Rainbow is known for getting into trouble, I hope she can control herself today, thought Sunset.

"Hey, Sonata, can I see your timetable again?" asked Sunset, "I need to see who's going to be in the same lessons as you."

"Sure, Sunny!" Sonata handed Sunset her timetable.

"Don't call me that." Sunset frowned at Sonata. "It looks like your literacy lesson is with Applejack and Pinkie Pie, we all have music together, your maths is with Fluttershy, history with me, then biology with Rarity and finally, art with Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity."

"Ohh, that means I get to see you all at least once today, and literacy with Pinkie sounds like fun!" said Sonata, "Oh and should I call you Shimmy or Shimmers then?"

Literacy with Pinkie didn't sound like fun to Sunset, it sounded more like chaos, hopefully controlled chaos. "Or you could just call me by the name my parents gave me. Lets just go to lessons, I'll see you again at music."

"Yay, thank you, Sunny Shimmers! Nobody - except sometimes Aria - is ever this nice to me. Then again, I did always try and eat their angry energy." Sonata hugged Sunset before bouncing off to literacy with Pinkie, Applejack followed behind them at a slower pace.

Sunset just stood there for a moment, not many people ever hugged her, she wasn't very social before the Fall Formal and after it most people hated her even more. Rarity and Fluttershy both started to walk to their classes, commenting about Sonata on the way, waking Sunset up from her mini-daydream.

"Well, she's certainly energetic."

"And awfully loud..."

Secret Soft Sides

Rainbow Dash raced down the corridors, forcing Aria to run after her in order to keep up. She wasn't hyperactive like Pinkie Pie, but she still liked to run at every opportunity.

"Come on! If you don't keep up you won't be able to find the classroom," Rainbow called out, over her shoulder.

"More like you need to slow down, Skittles." Aria sped up trying hard not to lose sight of Rainbow. "we don't have sports until last lesson."

"Then just think of this as a warm up," Rainbow said back, smiling, "It's on the next corridor."

Rainbow suddenly stopped in front of a door on a long corridor, decorated with posters for new books and writing competition handouts. Aria, who had been trying hard to keep up with her classmate, didn't stop in time and slammed into the back of Rainbow causing them both to fall over. The two quickly tried to get up, causing them to fall over on to each other again, just as another student walked around the corner. The student laughed and did a wolf whistle when he saw the two on the corridor floor. Rainbow and Aria blushed at the awkward scene they had created and tried to get up again, that time successfully.

"Well that was awkward," said Rainbow still blushing a bit.

"You think?" Aria sarcastically asked, "Next time, tell me when you're gonna suddenly stop! And what was with that stupid kid? He saw that we only fell over."

"If you were paying any attention to where you were going you wouldn't have knocked us both over and that stupid kid wouldn't have tried to be funny," Rainbow yelled in annoyance.

"You shouldn't have been running in the first place." Rainbow and Aria turned around to see Miss Cheerilee, she had a disapproving look on her face. "As you're the first ones here, I want you both to set up for the lesson. Rainbow, you hand out the books and...Aria is it? I want you to put a copy of Rodeo and Jeweliette on each desk."

The two girls groaned in annoyance, causing Cheerilee to glare at them. Aria followed Rainbow around the room, placing a copy of Shake Spear's play on each space as she did so. Rainbow's own book was at the bottom of the pile, so she went to her own desk last. There was a vacant desk next to her own, so she placed a new book for Aria on it, before sitting down at her own desk.

"Nobody sits at that desk, so it's as good as yours." Rainbow gave a small smile as she looked at Aria. "I could use the company anyway. The guy who sits on my right, Bulk Biceps, he isn't really one for conversation."

"Thanks," Was all Aria said in reply.

The school bell rang and Cheerilee called for the rest of her pupils to enter her classroom. Aria didn't recognize anyone in the class, other than Rainbow.

"Hey, Aria?" Called Rainbow.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to ask why you're in the second lowest literacy class," Said Rainbow, "It's just that you've been around for two thousand years, and you and your friends wrote your own songs, which were admittedly pretty good. I thought you'd be in Sunset's class or something."

"I don't like all the analysing we have to do," Said Aria "I was alive at the time of all the poets we have to write about, and out of all the theorys teachers come up with about what the poets really meant, I'd say at least half of them are wrong."

"I didn't know you liked poems so much," Rainbow said.

"I've always thought of songs as a type of poem, some poems even inspired me to write songs," Replied Aria.

"You always seemed to me like the tough one out of the Dazzlings, never knew you'd be such a sucker for poetry," Rainbow chuckled.

"Everyone has their hobbies and interests, Skittles. Why don't you tell me yours? And don't say sports! What do you do in the rest of your spare time, your secret is safe with me, I've never been one for gossip." Aria sat and waited for Rainbow to respond.

"I like Wonderbolt magazi-" Rainbow started, only to be cut off by Aria. "I said no sports!"

"Alright." Rainbow glanced around to make sure no one was listening, they weren't. "I'm Daring Doo's biggest fan." Rainbow leaned over to her left and whispered it in Aria's ear, just to make sure no body else could hear her.

"That's a book, right?" Asked Aria, "Not really my kind of story."

"What!? How can you not LOVE Daring Doo?!" Rainbow screamed.

The whole class turned around and Rainbow started to turn red with embarrassment.

"Rainbow Dash and Aria Blaze, go and wait outside until the bell, you're disturbing my lesson." Ordered Cheerilee.

"Well done, Skittles."

"I said out, you two!"

Rainbow and Aria continued to argue about what the best book was all the way to music.

"Hey Ari!" Sonata ran up to hug Aria. "School is soooo much fun, Sunset's friends are the best!"

Rainbow giggled a bit. "How are finding school, Ari?"

"Shut up, Skittles, you make this school the worst. And Sonata, I told you never to call me that, remember?" Asked Aria.

"I know, but I'm just so, so happy today!" Sonata then ran past Aria to Sunset Shimmer, who was just coming up the stairs. "Sunny! You're in time!"

"I'm almost always on time for my lessons, why wouldn't I be?" Sunset asked.

Pinkie jumped out from behind a door. "Maybe you could of got eaten by alligators or you could have got lost in the desert on the way to class and you would be drying up, all dehydrated and alone, so you'd see mirages of us all and think that it was really us but in reality you'd just be slipping into insanity."

"I don't think that can happen." Said Sunset.

"Oh yeah? How do you know you're not in the desert right now? We could all just be in your mind as you're slowly dying of thirst and lonelyness," Pinkie said.

"Ughh, how lnog until the lesson starts?" Aria moaned.

"Now." An older teacher with a snow-white mane looked at Aria, before steping into the classroom. "Everyone in, we have two new students joining us today and as you know all new students must perform a song, so that I can get a good idea of their musical abilitys."

"Can't I just play an instrument?" Asked Aria.

"Certainly not, all the students have to sing in music lessons, you can't just play instruments," Replied the teacher. "Since your name comes before Sonata's you will be performing first, Aria."

Sonata and the Rainbooms looked at Aria expectantly. Fluttershy tried not to stare, but Pinkie held up a banner with Aria's name on it and the others tried to give reassuring smiles. She wasn't afraid to sing in front of people, but she knew that her voice would sound awful, even without singing it sounded like she had a frog in her throat. That's it! I'll just tell the music teacher that me and Sonata have bad throats, it's believable, thought Aria.

"The reason I don't want to sing is that me and Sonata have both caught a cough, and our throats are a little sore." Aria lied.

"They are?" Sonata looked at Aria quizzically. "Mine feels alright to me."

Aria facepalmed. "It's obvious that our throats are bad, just listen to our voices! In fact, I think it would be a good idea for me to go to the nurse's office, I think it needs checking out." Aria rushed out the room before the teacher could reply.

"Sorry, Mr Horseshoepin, but Principal Celestia asked me to keep an eye on her. Gotta go." Rainbow ran out the classroom after Aria.

Rainbow saw Aria run round the corner, just as she got onto the corridor. Good job I'm so fast, She's gonna get lost running around the school like that, thought Rainbow.

"Hey, Aria," Rainbow called, "Nurse's office is this way!"

"Why can't you and your friends just leave me alone!?" Asked Aria.

"Because I'm the element of loyalty, so I stick with my friends no matter what," Rainbow replied.

"You'd consider me your friend?" Aria's tone became less harsh as she turned to look at Rainbow. "After everything I've done?"

"I'm not one to hold grudges, I'm too forgetful, always forget what I'm holding them for." Rainbow gestured for Aria to follow her. "Now let's get that throat of yours looked at, it may not be a common cold, but I'm sure there must be something we can do to get it sounding almost normal."

Aria followed Rainbow to the Nurse's office, Rainbow was kind enough to walk there, so Aria didn't have to chase after her. When they got there the office looked empty, except for Nurse Redheart, of course. The two girls walked in, but as Rainbow stepped through the door she was tackled to the ground by Scootaloo, who was covered in cuts and bruises.

"Woah, watch it, Squirt," Rainbow said lightheartedly. She knew the kid well and was sort of like a big sister to her, so she often talked to her in a joking manner. "What happened to you?"

"I crashed my scooter into the school trophy cabinet-but don't worry-all your awards are fine!" Scootaloo said quickly.

"Hey, I doesn't matter as long as you're okay, Kiddo. Although it is good knowing that my awards can still be seen by everyone, just to let them know how awesome I am!" Said Rainbow.

Aria looked over to Scootaloo and Rainbow, smiling to herself. "Ohhh, looks like someone's got a secret soft side."

"Hey, you'd better not breathe a word about this to anyone, or my reputation is ruined!" Rainbow said.

"As I said before, I don't partake in gossip, although it is kinda cute that you're really just a big softy," chuckled Aria.

Aria and Rainbow had spent the whole of second lesson talking about themselves. Rainbow felt like she could be herself around Aria, as she knew half her secrets anyway, and for some strange reason she felt like she could trust the Siren who had tried to take over the world only a few days ago. Nurse Redheart had taken a long time to get a look at Aria's throat, because she was busy sorting out Scootaloo, mostly trying to get the young girl away from Rainbow Dash long enough to get a good look at her injurys. The Nurse couldn't see any thing wrong with Aria's throat, but since it was almost break time, she let the two girls stay in the office anyway.

"Ohmigosh! Ari! How's your throat?" Sonata burst through the door, followed closely by Sunset Shimmer and eventually the rest of the girls.

"Sonata, get...off, can't...breathe." Aria tried to push her hyperactive friend off her.

"You were gone all lesson, Ari! Is it bad?" Asked Sonata.

"Don't call me that, Sonata! My throat's fine." Aria said.

"Hey, do you remember that time I was really sick and you got me that super cuddly pony plushie?" Sonata asked, smiling.

Aria glanced around, hoping no one had heard and Rainbow burst out laughing.

"Looks like someone else has a secret soft side!"

"Shut up, Skittles!"

Football match? Or boxing match?

Rainbow Dash continued to run around the school with Aria close behind, they turned a corner around the building and a large football pitch came into view. Some of the other students were already playing, but it wasn't a very serious game and others kept joining teams in the middle of the match. Rainbow slowed right down and started to walk the rest of the way, doing warmup stretchs on the way over. Some of the students previously immersed in the game started to come over when they saw Aria, they expressions on their faces told her they weren't to happy to see her there.

"What's the deal with the siren, Crash?" Asked the first student, Aria assumed he was the leader, "We don't allow cheaters, bad sportsmanship or animals in our matches."

"I'm the sports captain, and I say she play," Rainbow told them sternly, "wether you like it or not."

"You may have been elected captain, but we didn't vote for you, Rainbow Crash." The students then left to go back into the school building.

Aria said nothing as Rainbow sprinted at full speed to the pitch, the other students had obviously gotten under her skin with the name calling, Aria decided there must be a story behind the name to make Rainbow so angry all of a sudden. Rainbow dragged Aria over to the team with the least players and started to run to a good position on the pitch. Aria had played before in her long lifetime, so she wasn't completely clueless, she ran forwards and called for the person with the ball to pass to her, but he kept running and the other team took the ball and managed to score a goal. Rainbow could see that the boy with the ball could have easily passed it to Aria, so she stormed up to him and started ranting.

"You completely ignored an opportunity to pass the ball and cost us the game because of some stupid grudge," yelled Rainbow, "If you have anything personal against any of your teammates, take it of the pitch. You're suspended until Thursday."

"She mind controlled me and made my girlfriend split up with me, she's not my teammate." The boy scowled at Aria and a few more students started to gather. "And if you're going to defend her, then you're no longer my captain."

The boy clenched his hand into a fist and tried to punch Aria, but she saw it coming and blocked it. Rainbow pushed the boy back and he stumbled back into the growing crowed. At least half the sports team were glaring, and they had Aria and Rainbow surrounded. The boy and one of his friends tried to punch Aria and Rainbow who both blocked, Aria blocked all the oncoming punches, not wanting to fight back on her first day of school. She pushed the boy over onto his back and his friends tried to help him up but as he started to stand he kicked out with his leg and his spiked football boots cut down Aria's legs. Aria went pale as she saw the blood, before her pendant broke she was immune to physical injury cause by humans, the new sensation of pain shot through her and she held back a scream as she fell to the floor. Rainbow had been beating up any student who tried to get close when she saw what happened, she continued to kick the guy with the football boots in the face until his friends pulled her of and started to beat her up too. Rainbow didn't show pain and tried to fight back, but there were to many. She had taken a lot of punches, but she wasn't backing down, luckily for her it turned out she wouldn't need to. Bulk Biceps was on his way to take the football back inside, but he saw what was happening and chased off the mob. Rainbow could just about still stand, but Aria was almost unconscious, so Bulk Biceps carried her to the nurse's office.

"Thanks, Bulk." Rainbow sat next Aria in the office as she waved to the huge fitness freak.

"Yeeeeeah," was all he said as he left the office.

"My goodness! What happened?" asked the nurse, she sounded a bit panicked, and Rainbow thought it was unprofessional.

"Got attacked by the football team, I'm fine, but you'd better check Aria," explained Rainbow, "She got kicked with football boots."

Nurse Redheart had to cut away the end of Aria's jeans to take a look at the cuts, they were deep and needed stitches. She quickly called the hospital to pick her up so she could get the cuts stitched, before cleaning and disinfecting them, fortunately they weren't to big, but she still needed stitches. Unfortunately some of the others had kicked her on the ground so she was going to have some bruises and judging by the way it was already swelling up, a bad black eye. Rainbow also had a black eye and bloodied nose but she didn't have any cuts or fractures. Rainbow looked sorrowfully at Aria as she tried to hold back tears from the stinging caused by the disinfectant. Fortunately the hospital wasn't to far from the school so it didn't take long for the ambulance to arrive. Rainbow asked Principal Celestia if she could go to if she got parent permission, Celestia agreed, so Rainbow called her dad just to check it was okay and after hearing the affirmative she got in the Ambulance too. Celestia was actually relieved that Rainbow was going too, on the way back her dad could drop Aria off at wherever she lived. Celestia didn't have any contact details for either of the sirens and she didn't want to get into any trouble.

Sunset Shimmer and Sonata were with Applejack and Rarity, helping their two younger sisters and Scootaloo come up with an idea for a new ponytube video. Sunset had seen their old ones, and she wasn't convinced they should be making anymore, especially not after the offensive comments their last video was given. Sunset always tried to give them positive feedback, she felt bad about all the times the old Sunset had made hurtful comments to try and make them hate each other.

"Why don't you try to make gaming videos?" suggested Sonata, "Even Aria watches videos like that."

"That's an awesome idea," exclaimed Scootaloo, "I could ask Rainbow to help, she's the best at Super Smash Bronies."

"Hold your horses their, Scootaloo," said Applebloom, "Mah sister said she always beats Rainbow Dash, unless she cheats. Isn't that right AJ?"

"Well ah wouldn't say always, but I'm real good at that game," Answered Applejack.

Sunset remembered how competitive the two friends got at Pinkie's sleep over, and she wasn't to sure they'd be more help than trouble to any possible game related videos the younger girls would make. Then again, it could be funny, and that would get them more likes. Sunset contemplated wether or not the help would be appreciated. While she was thinking she remembered something Pinkie Pie had said about one of her cousins, he was apparently as random as her and one of the only family members she shared any resemblance with, in terms of personality.

"Maybe you could ask Pinkie if her cousin could help you," Sunset suggested, "I heard he's a very popular ponytuber and gamer."

"We could ask him for advice and get him to star in our video," added Sweetie Bell.

"I'm afraid I know very little on the subject of video games, so I can't offer any advice, but I'll make you all some fabulous outfits for first video gaming video," Rarity said with her usual overly dramatic voice.

"You really don't have to." Scootaloo made hand motions to emphasize her point.

"Oh, but I insist, I simply must." When those words came out of Rarity's mouth it was obvious there no way to change her mind. The three young friends could just hope that their outfits would go with the theme of their video.

The seven occupants of the almost always empty library were surprised to see Bulk Biceps interrupt their conversation, they were friends, but they didn't really talk to each other much, especially since Bulk was a man of few words. when he saw Rarity his cheeks went red and his eyes moved down to look at his feet, it was as if the colour from his irises had moved down his face to where his cheeks were. It was obvious to everyone but Rarity, that Bulk had a crush on her, unfortunately for him she was currently dating a member of the eco committee, the same eco committee member Fluttershy had a crush on making things more complicated.

"I think you should follow me to the nurse's office." It was possibly the longest sentence Bulk had ever said in front of the friends, so they knew it must have been important.

Instead of asking Bulk any questions they simply followed after him, they knew asking him questions wouldn't get them anywhere fast. They walked to the office in silence it wasn't too far so they weren't walking for long, but when they got their the office was empty, even the nurse was gone. The seven friends and Bulk Biceps walked in, there was blood on the floor and bed and medical supplies were left untidily on the desk. The three Rainbooms members and Sonata could see red lights flashing in their heads, they all knew that Aria and Rainbow had gone outside to do sports and they didn't know where they were. Fluttershy wasn't with them either, but she knew how to stay out of trouble and no one wanted to hurt her. Nurse Redheart came back into her office with a pen and a couple of forms, she looked nervous when she saw the friends, unsure of what to tell them. Applejack looked inpatient and stamped her foot before waving her arms and hands to indicate the messy and bloodstained office.

"What in tarnation happened here?!"

Mortality

Rainbow Dash sat in the back of the ambulance with Aria, since neither Aria or Sonata had parents in the human world the school had to call for an ambulance, despite Aria's injurys not being life threatening. Rainbow remained quiet, she slowly looked up to see Aria struggling to remain conscious. Aria tried to keep looking up away from the cuts and bruises, the unfamiliar sensation of pain made her feel uneasy, it reminded her just how powerless she was without her pendant. A small tear trickled down her face, she had lived for thousands of years, thousands of years she had taken for granted. Aria traced her finger around a bruise, a reminder of her mortality, the thought that she would age and eventually die scared her more than anything. When she saw that Rainbow was avoiding eye contact, she let the tears flow, all the fear she had felt since her pendant had broken came back in the form of a endless river of tears. Aria had never allowed herself to cry before, it made her feel weak and powerless, and until recently power was all she cared about. The constant crying and the pain of her injurys made her tired, the tears had slowed and Aria's eye lids gradually got too heavy to stay open, the last tear fell as she started to drift into sleep.

Rainbow was still staring at the floor as if willing it to swallow her up, guilt had been building up inside her since she arrived in the nurse's office, but despite the painful emotion nagging away inside her mind her loyalty was stronger, forcing her to step into the ambulance with Aria. Rainbow's unfocused gaze was still fixed on the same spot on the vehicle floor when she felt something warm rest on her shoulder. She carefully turned to see that Aria had fallen asleep and was leaning on her, Rainbow could see the tear stains on Aria's face and wondered if they were from emotional or physical pain. She blamed herself for Aria's injurys, it was her who dragged the former siren outside to play football in the first place. Rainbow forgot her anger towards the sports team and just pinned the blame on herself, she had begun to stare more intensely at the floor as if could really swallow her up. The ambulance began to slow down as it reached the hospital, it stopped moving and the front doors clicked open as the driver and nurse got out. Aria woke when the vehicles movement ceased, she was resting on something warm and rather comfortable, she lifted an eye lid to see that her head was on Rainbow's shoulder. Aria closed her eye again when she realised the other girl hadn't noticed she was awake, she knew that she would have to enter the hospital in a minute, but she didn't want to move.

The driver walked round the back of the ambulance and swung open the doors. "Are you awake?" He walked closer to the back of his vehicle.

Aria slowly lifted her head and yawned a "yes" before rubbing her eyes and blinking a few times.

"Can you walk to A and E from here or do I need to carry you there?" asked the driver.

"I can walk fine," replied Aria, stepping out of the ambulance, "see? I don't need any help."

The driver nodded and closed the door when Rainbow stepped out. Aria walked round the corner to A and E, it was just a feet away from where the ambulance had stopped. She was just outside the door when her knees buckled and she started to fall, she didn't even put out her arms to stop herself, she was still tired and hadn't quite caught up with what was happening. Realization hit Aria just before she hit the ground, but instead of making contact the cold, hard concrete, she felt an arm catch her and pull her up. Aria turned to look at Rainbow as she helped her up, but the rainbow haired girl just turned away as soon as Aria was back on her feet. Aria saw the guilty look on Rainbow's face and realised why she was ignoring her. Aria didn't blame Rainbow, Rainbow blamed herself, and Aria blamed herself for her past misdeeds. She found she was still a bit unstable walking through the door, so to Rainbow's surprise Aria leaned against her for support the rest of the way in.

Rainbow helped Aria over to a seat and handed the receptionist a form from the school before taking a seat next to Aria. A and E was full of people; a man with a broken finger, a mother of three sat with a sick child whilst trying to keep the other two under control and an old lady demanding to be seen to straight away because she thought she was having a heart attack. It was noisy and small children ran around, pestering other patients.

"You feel guilty don't you? That's why you're ignoring me." Aria turned to look at Rainbow. "It's not your fault, I've had it coming to me since before you were born. The only person to blame is myself. I should be the one feeling guilty, you stood up for me despite all I've done, and now you've been beaten up too, because of me. You're friends on the sports team have fallen out with you, because of me. Why did you come with me here, you should hate me."

"It's not your fault." Rainbow looked up at Aria. "The first bullys we saw normally say stuff about me, that's a regular occurrence. The sports team were out of line though, even if I did hate you - which I don't - I wouldn't have let them attack you. They shouldn't have done that, and I'm glad I tried to defend you, even though I couldn't stop them all. The only regret I have is taking you to the pitch in the first place. No matter what you've done in the past, you didn't deserve this."

"You're being soft again, Skittles," Aria said, smirking.

Rainbow huffed in annoyance and leaned back in her chair, from past experiences she knew they would be waiting for awhile. She tried to get comfortable in the worn hospital chair, but in wasn't exactly soft.

"Does it hurt much?" Rainbow turned back to face Aria. "The cuts?"

"I couldn't feel pain when I had my pendant, so I'm not used to it. The cuts aren't very long, so I'm sure I'll be fine," responded Aria, "How are your bruises?"

"I'm fine, I get injurys all the time from sports." Rainbow looked at a particularly large bruise on her leg. "Although I don't think I'll be wearing a skirt tomorrow. I'm sorry about your pendant, I didn't realise it did things other than help you sing."

"Don't be sorry," Aria responded, "It corrupt me, made me power hungry and blind to see that I was hurting people. Sirens are born with horrible voices, that's why the pendants were created. Thousands of years ago sirens had beautiful voices from birth, but a young sailor fell in love with a siren princess upon hearing her voice and left his girlfriend to be with the princess. The girlfriend was a unicorn, so out of jealously she used her magic to curse every siren she could find to have an awful voice. The sirens used magic through their songs and they couldn't sing anymore, so the queen made a deal with a powerful unicorn, if the unicorn fixed their voices he would be given all the treasure he could fit on his boat. The queen still hated unicorns though, so when the unicorn had made enough pendants to fix the sirens' voices, the queen sang a song that made him drown himself. The pendants turned evil when the unicorn died and made the wearers angry, hateful and power hungry. Starswirl the bearded, a famous unicorn, was attacked by a siren so he went on a quest to banish every last one to this pathetic world. That's how me Sonata and Adagio got here. That was thousands of years ago, I don't know what happened to the other sirens that were banished here, most were hunted and killed."

"I thought you and the other Dazzlings were just evil, I had no idea it was the pendants," said Rainbow.

"Don't think I've gone soft just because my pendant broke, I'm still not a goody two shoes like you and your little band of human-pony mutants," Aria replied.

"I'm not a goody-goody like Fluttershy, Rarity or Applejack." Rainbow leaned back in her seat. "This is boring, it takes waaaaaay too long to get seen by a doctor in this place."

"Miss Aria Blaze, you may now see the nurse." The voice from the speaker echoed loudly in the waiting room.

"You were saying?" asked Aria, trying to stand up.

Aria's legs were shaking and she had to lean on Rainbow for support again. The two made their way to a small room with a nurse inside, Rainbow went in with Aria, but the nurse asked her to wait out side again much to Rainbow's annoyance. A and E was still loud and full of hyperactive kids, but Rainbow wasn't waiting long, Aria was sent straight to get stitches and Rainbow was allowed to follower her, mostly to prevent Aria from falling over. It wasn't far to get to a small room where another nurse waited with some medical equiptment.

The nurse looked towards Aria. "You must be Miss Blaze, please take a seat so I can take a better look at your cuts." The nurse examined her injures before looking up to speak to Aria. "I'm afraid you need stitches, the cuts are quite deep and will unfortunately almost definitely leave scars although I'm uncertain as to what extent." The nurse went towards her medical equipment before continuing. "I need to clean the cuts first and it will sting a lot I'm sorry."

Aria held back screams and tears as the nurse disinfected the slashes across her legs. She didn't want anyone to see her in pain.

"If you have any questions just ask, I'm going to begin stitching the cuts now. I'm sorry but this will hurt and your friend will have to wait outside." The nurse gathered the necessary medical supplies and equiptment before shooing Rainbow out the room.

Rainbow was waiting again. She wasn't ever a patient person, especially not now that she was stood outside a hospital room while her friend was getting stitches. Rainbow still mostly blamed herself and she knew how painful stitches are, she remembered Aria saying that she's not used to pain, but then she remembered Sonata saying that Aria got her a teddy when she was in hospital. Rainbow wondered why Sonata had to go to hospital if the pendants stopped the sirens getting hurt, maybe she'd ask later, in the meantime Rainbow had a gift shop to find. She ran down the corridors, following the signs until she found the get well soon shop near the main entrance. Rainbow walked inside the small shop and saw a wall with shelves piled with beanies, plushies and teddy bears. She scanned the shelves until she came across a small kitten teddy. Rainbow stood in thought for a moment, deciding whether or not Aria was a cat person, she made up her mind and picked up the kitten. She paid the cashier and sped off towards the room Aria was in, kitten in hand. Rainbow lived up to her name as she dashed past staff to get to the other end of the hospital. Aria was still in the room, so Rainbow stood outside waiting until she came out, which luckily for the impatient girl wasn't too long. Aria's legs were bandaged and visibly even shakier, so she almost fell on Rainbow when she walked out the room.

"I hate to ask," began Aria, "but do you think you could play the part of human walking stick for just a bit longer?"

"Sure." Rainbow helped Aria steady herself. "I remember Sonata saying that you got her a teddy when she wound up in hospital, so I got you this." Rainbow handed Aria the kitten teddy. "There was a cute dog one, but I thought you might be more of a cat person."

"Wow. You really are soft, Skittles, but...thank you."

Lies, secrets and more tacos

The bell signaling the end of the school day rung through the school, not a second later the classrooms and corridors were full of the voices of students, rushing to get away from their work and teachers. The corridor was crowded and people were shoved into each other and the walls during their escape. Sonata was ment to be meeting her new friends at the statue at the front of the school, but she was struggling to push her way through the crowded corridors to the door. She'd managed to squeeze herself past enough people to make it half way down the corridor before someone shoved her forwards into the person in front.

"Ahhh!" Sonata tried to balance herself, but she couldn't prevent herself from falling forward, almost knocking over the person in front. "I am sooooo sorry, someone pushed m - Sunset? Ohmigosh I'm sorry."

The person in front had turned around, revealing themselves as Sunset Shimmer. She looked up and saw Flash Sentry smirking at her and Sonata in a self-satisfied way, evil intent evident in his eyes. Two other boys with similar blue hair stood either side of him, supposedly trying to make themselves look more intimating.

"What are you doing back here, Siren? Battle of the Bands gave me another opportunity to see Twilight again, but you and your sisters had to come along and ruin it didn't you?" Flash and his two sidekicks crossed their arms in almost perfect synchronization. "The whole time she was here I was a total jerk to her because of you, even when the spell was broken she barely spoke to me, I might not even get to see her ever again. And you, Sunset." He pointed for emphasis."You broke my heart, I cared about you, but you only wanted me so you could show me off to everyone like some kind of trophy boyfriend. You never even liked me, Twilight is the only one who ever loved me back, but now she's gone and the only memorys she'll have of me are of when I was a total jerk."

Sunset was initially mad at Flash's actions, but his tone changed towards the end and she could tell he was more frustrated and sad than he was angry. Flash was normally cheerful and a bit goofy, but he hadn't quite been himself since Twilight left, nevertheless she knew he wouldn't go as far as to attack her and Sonata.

"I know it won't fix things, but I'm sorry, Flash. If I could go back and change things I would, but you can't blame Sonata that you can't see Twilight again, if the sirens didn't use their magic then Twilight wouldn't have come back here in the first place, and I know you care about her a lot, but she's a Princess from another world, you have to face the truth that you could never be together as a couple." Sunset had been staring at her feet, unable to look Flash in the eye, she slowly looked up to see Flash looking depressed and also staring at the floor. "Twilight is very busy now that she's a princess, but I'm sure she misses you too. If you really want to speak to her then you could write her a letter, I have a book that I can use to write to her, maybe you could arrange a date for her to visit you."

"You could really do that? Wow, thanks, and I'm sorry I pushed you, Sonata was it? I haven't really been myself lately, I guess everything that's happened has just left me down in the dumps," Flash apologized giving a sheepish grin, "Could I maybe meet you tomorrow at lunch to write to Twilight?"

"What? You're apologizing to that fish demon after all that she's done?" The other blue-haired boys looked in disbelief and anger at Flash Sentry.

"Sunset's right, and if you don't agree then don't get involved," Flash said to the other two, "Sunset, I'll see you at lunch tomorrow to write to Twilight, if that's alright with you of course."

"Sure." Sunset gave a thumbs-up before continuing down the corridor towards the exit.

"What's up with him?" asked Sonata.

"I used to date him back when I ran the school, the old me was horrible and I just used him because a lot of the other girls had a crush on him. He's been a little weird since Twilight left, but he's a nice guy normally," Sunset replied.

"You didn't ever even have a little bit of a crush on him? He is kinda cute in a goofy kind of way," asked Sonata.

Sunset sighed. "Not really, I never really thought of him in that kind of way before, I was just using him. The old me was horrible, I'm lucky Twilight and her friends gave me a second chance."

The two reformed villains continued down the corridor and out to the front of the school where four of their friends were waiting. Pinkie's hair seemed a bit deflated, Rarity was flustered, Applejack was tugging at her hat nervously and Fluttershy was quietly crying against the statue. Sunset went over to try and reassure Fluttershy, they were all worried about Rainbow Dash and Aria, but the nurse was wouldn't tell them what happened because of student confidentially or some such rule. Applejack, being as stubborn as she is, wouldn't leave until she knew more about what had happened, but in the end she had to be dragged out by Granny Smith who was called over when Applejack refused to leave. Sunset turned on her phone to check if Rainbow had text her anything, the screen lit up and she could see a number one displayed next to the text icon. She touched the screen to find that the text was indeed from Rainbow.

"I got a text, hold on." Sunset touched the screen to show the new message and began to read it out loud. "Hey how r u doing. Sorry i just kinda left without saying anything aria got attacked by some jerks so i stepped in but we r at the hospital coz she needed stitches. shes okay now my dads picking us up ill call u l8r."

"Ughh, I can't believe she texts like that, can she not even bother to send us a readable message?" Rarity groaned.

"Shouldn't ya be more concerned about her welfare, Sugarcube?" Asked Applejack.

"Is that all it says? What happened? What are stitches?" Sonata was panicking and looking worried.

"Stitches are just something the hospital gives to people who have cuts to help them heal better and reduce scarring. If they're leaving now then there can't be any serious damage, so you should try not to worry." Sunset tried to give a reassuring smile, but it was hard to smile when Sonata looked so scared and upset.

Sonata gave a small smile back. "Oh, but I don't remember the way back home from here without Aria."

Sunset looked puzzled. "You don't remember where your house is? But didn't you always live there?"

"We kinda may have mind washed some hotel staff into letting us stay there for free, but when our pendants broke they kicked us out," explained Sonata.

Sunset looked a bit shocked and guilty about what happened. "Wait, so where do you live now?"

"Oh, you know, just around." Sonata looked down towards her feet.

Sunset narrowed her eyes, determined to find out where the siren was actually living. "Around where? I'll be worried unless I know you have somewhere to stay."

"Well there's this vacant cottage on the outskirts of the city, and the house itself is still mostly standing, so it's as good a place as any, right?" Sonata spoke in her usual cheerful voice, but she didn't lift her gaze up from the ground.

Everyone's jaws dropped at hearing this, even Rarity, although she closed her mouth as soon as she realised it was hanging open. Sunset almost expected Sonata to say something along those lines, but it still came as a shock. She couldn't let the naïve siren wander around alone and lost at night.

"You can stay at my apartment tonight, my sofa converts into a bed," said Sunset, unprepared to let her new friend sleep in the street. "We can stop at the cottage on the way so that you can get your things."

"Thank you, Sunny!" Sonata was suddenly very cheerful again.

Rainbow Dash helped Aria limp over to the car where her dad was waiting to pick them both up. Rainbow's dad was sat in a expensive looking blue sports car, a pair of oversized sunglasses perched upon his messy rainbow hair. Aria could see a huge resemblance between Rainbow and her dad, she wondered if Rainbow's mum shared as much resemblance with her daughter. Rainbow opened the passenger door and pulled the seat forwards to get in the back. Aria was greatful that she wouldn't have to climb in the back with her legs recently stitched. Once she got in and closed the door Rainbow's dad put on some loud music and drove quickly out of the car park.

"So you're that girl from another world or something?" asked Rainbow's dad, "When my daughter started talking about demons and pony princess and things I thought she was starting to loose it. Wasn't until I saw her get those pony ears that I actually believed her, and despite the visable evidence it's still hard to believe."

"Yeah, one of my sisters almost got dragged off to a funny farm when she tried explaining all that to a human," agreed Aria.

"Aren't you a siren or something from greek mythology? I'm pretty sure Rainbow has a game on the computer with sirens on it." Rainbow's dad continued to drive very fast, but he seemed to be a pretty good driver.

Aria looked into the back. "You play computer games?"

"No way, I'm not a nerd or anything, just something to do if any of my sports get cancelled." Rainbow looked away as she said it.

"I guess if you don't play it anymore I'll just have to cancel your subscription, no point in paying it if your not going to play the game." Rainbow's dad continued to engage in conversation while still skillfully navigating passed other cars.

"What! No, I just got my character to level one hundred! I-I mean I still play it sometimes so there's no need to cancel it." Rainbow looked panicked at the thought of having her game subscription cancelled causing Aria to chuckle to herself quietly.

"Your friends aren't gonna start hating you just 'cause you play a few computer games, just be honest and be yourself." Rainbow's dad turned down another street. "We're back near the school now, where should I drop you off?"

"Just drop me off here, I can walk the rest of the way," said Aria.

"I can't just drop you off here, it's getting dark, you can barely walk and I don't know how far you have to walk to get to your house." Rainbow's dad kept driving.

"I live at number eleven, Pegasus Street," Aria lied, she had seen the sign for a road called Pegasus Street on the way to school, so it wasn't too far from the cottage.

Aria was quiet for the ten minutes it took to arrive at Pegasus Street, she didn't want to lie, but she knew that she couldn't let anyone know where she lived. She assumed there was a number eleven on Pegasus Street, eleven wasn't to high a number, even for just a small street. The car turned on Pegasus Street and Aria could see a bunch of cars parked outside one of the houses, a few drunk people were staggering around outside and making lots of noise. Aria could only hope that that house wasn't number eleven. The car got closer and Aria could see a banner that read: "Happy Birthday Berry Punch." Upon further inspection it was indeed number eleven.

"You live here?" Rainbow's dad raised an eyebrow.

"Umm-" Aria was interrupted by a knocking on the car window.

Rainbow's dad wound down the window and a young, obviously drunk woman with pink hair popped her head through the window. "Who're, hic, yooou?"

"I'm here to drop off Aria, she does live here right?" asked Rainbow's dad.

"I don't know who you're talkin' 'bout, but do ya wanna drink with me?" slurred the drunk woman.

"Yeeeeah no, I'm good thanks," He replied

"Ya sure? We have punch." The pink-haired drunk swayed back and forth, spilling the drink in her hand.

"Positive." Rainbow's dad wound up the window and looked at Aria. "Where do you really live?"

Rainbow could see Aria was a bit nervous. "You have had somewhere to live since battle of the bands, haven't you?"

Aria glanced around, unsure of wether to tell them or not. It was dark, so there was still a chance they wouldn't notice the cottage was abandoned. "I live on a small cottage at the end of Cloudsdale Road."

Rainbow's dad didn't say anything else before he did a U-turn for Cloudsdale Road. It only took about a minute to get there, but despite the darkness it still looked old and unstable.

"Here? This is the truth this time? 'Cause I don't have time for jokes." Rainbow's dad stopped the car outside the small, old house.

"Yes, here," replied Aria, "guess I'll see you tomorrow, Skittles."

"You can't stay here, you're injured and it's winter, you'll freeze," argued Rainbow, "Dad doesn't mind if you stay at mine tonight for a sleep over or something, do you dad?"

Rainbow's Dad sighed. "I can't let you stay here."

"Thanks...I appreciate it. I'll just go grab my stuff." Aria got out of the car.

Rainbow got out of after her. "I'll help you carry it back to the car then."

The two girls entered the house through the busted, old door, Aria limped towards the bedroom and Rainbow followed close behind. Aria entered the bedroom and finding it empty she suddenly remembered that Sonata would be on her own if she went with Rainbow. She took out her phone and selected Sonata from her recent calls. The phone rang only a few times before Sonata answed it.

"Ohmigosh, Aria, are you ok? Everyone is sooo worried. Where are you?" Aria could hear the barrage of questions coming from Sonata.

While Aria was checking on Sonata, Rainbow looked around the room, she shivered as a draft blew through the house. She walked over to the sofa and found a a bag full of clothes and other belongings.

"This yours?" She pointed at the bag.

Aria nodded and locked her phone. "Yeah. Sonata staying at Sunset's tonight, apparently Sunset has been trying to get hold of you."

"Oh, my phone must be flat, I'll charge it when we get back to mine." Rainbow picked up the bag and made for the door. "This all of it?"

Aria nodded. "Yeah. Apparently Sunset already brought Sonata here so she could pick up her own stuff."

"Okay then, lets go." Rainbow carried Aria's bag out the cottage and loaded it into the boot before getting into the car.

When the door shut Rainbow's dad started the engine and raced down the road, music was blasting from the speakers again. He wound down the windows a bit and Aria could feel the cool air from outside blow through her hair.

"Any song suggestions?" Rainbow's dad asked Aria.

"Any music's fine, umm..." Aria tried to think of what his name was.

"Rainbow Blaze, the name's Rainbow Blaze," Rainbow Blaze said.

Sonata and Sunset had arrived at a block of flats, Sonata followed Sunset up the stone steps and watched a she pulled out a key to open the door. Sunset lead the other girl up two flights of stairs before she stopped outside of a door with the number seven on it, she stuck a bronze key in the lock and turned it until it clicked and the door opened. Sonata followed Sunset inside and looked around the flat, it wasn't exactly messy, but it was less organized than Sonata imagined. Homework was spread out across the desk and coffee table and books were stacked up in every corner of the room.

"Sorry about the mess, I was up late studying last night and didn't get round to putting everything away." Sunset shuffled her homework into a neat pile and moved it on to the desk.

"It's okay, it's not that messy," replied Sonata, she took a seat on the sofa and her stomach growled.

Sunset chuckled a little. "Guess it's time for dinner, I'll check what's in the cupboards." She rummaged through the cupboards and fridge then frowned. "I'm out of food, I'll have to go food shopping tomorrow. Any particular takeaway you want?

"Hmmm, oh! Can we order tacos?" asked Sonata.

Sunset laughed again. "Didn't we have tacos for lunch?"

"Yeah, but it's taco tuesday and everyone loves tacos!" Exclaimed Sonata, in her usual cheery voice.

"Okay then." Sunset got out her phone and ordered a some tacos to be delivered within half an hour.

While the two waited for the food to arrive, Sunset setup the sofa-bed ready for Sonata and went to make them both a cup of tea. She placed the cups on two coasters on the coffee table in front of them, before she turned to face Sonata.

"Can I ask you a weird question?" asked Sunset.

"Sure, what is it?" Sonata replied.

"It's to do with something Rarity mentioned earlyer," started Sunset, "I just wondered, because you and your sisters have lived for so long, have any of you ever dated anyone?"

"I've had a few dates, nothing serious though, although Adagio has dated quite a few people and I think Aria had a secret crush on someone from an old school a few years back," answered Sonata, "Why the sudden interest?"

"Well, it's just that Rarity noticed that Rainbow was acting a bit strange around Aria, so she came up with the idea that Rainbow might have a crush on her. I don't really know how, but Rarity is normally good at spotting secret crushes, all except Bulk Biceps' crush on her anyway," explained Sunset.

"Oh, well I don't know, but Aria seems to have warmed up to Rainbow pretty quickly, she's normally ice cold towards everyone, even me sometimes." Sonata took a sip of her tea.

"Sorry, it was kind of a weird question. Please don't tell Rainbow what I said, for all I know it could just be one of Rarity's crazy matchmaking schemes." Sunset looked down at the cup in front of her and lifted it up to her mouth to take sip.

They both sat drinking their tea until they heared the buzzer for the door go. As suspected it was the taco delivery man and Sonata jumped up almost knocking the tea off the table.

"It's the tacos!"

"Yes, Sonata. It's the tacos."

Sunset, Sonata and Tacos

Break was over and everyone was making their way to their own classes. Sunset was in the same maths class as Rainbow and Aria, so she folllowed the two. Sunset smiled at how well the two girls were getting on together. She wondered how Sonata would get on with Fluttershy in maths, the two were so different and Fluttershy still seemed a bit wary of her. Sunset hoped that Fluttershy would provide a calming influence over Sonata, and would prevent any random outbursts during class. She chuckled a little when she thought of how ditzy and airheaded Sonata could be.

"Huh?" Rainbow dash turned around when she heard Sunset chuckle. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, I just remembered something that made laugh," replied Sunset, "It's nothing."

"If you say so." Rainbow rolled her eyes.

The three girls had arrived at their maths lesson on time, and were each handed a double sided sheet of paper, it had a long list of questions about topics they'd covered in previous lessons. Sunset had no problem remembering how to work out any of the equations, Rainbow was one of the top maths students and Aria had already studied maths many times in her lifetime, so the teacher didn't need to explain anything to her. The lesson was generally uneventful for Sunset, Rainbow and Aria had been racing each other to see who could get the most questions done, but other than that they hadn't really said much.

When the bell signaling next lesson rang, Sunset said good-bye to her two friends and made her way to history. Sunset was almost at the end of the maths corridor when she suddenly couldn't see, someone had snuck up behind her and covered her eyes with their hands, and she had a good guess as to who.

"Guess who?" called a cheery, yet rough sounding voice, like the owner had a sore throat.

"Hmm, I wonder who it could be, Sonata," said Sunset.

"Aww, how'd you know it was me?" asked Sonata.

"Other than Pinkie Pie and possibly Rainbow, your the only person who would do that, and neither of the other two walk this way to fourth lesson." Sunset turned around to smile at Sonata. "Now follow me, I'll show you where history is."

Sonata and Sunset walked all around the school to get to their history class, it was at the other end of the school, and the amount of people rushing around made it hard to move in the narrow corridors. Sunset tried to hurry up Sonata, their history teacher wasn't the most pleasant of people, especially when students were late for her lessons. Once the two got away from the maths corridors, the amount of people crushing each other trying to squeeze past decreased, so Sonata and Sunset ran the rest of the way to make up for lost time. The two kept running until they got to their destination. The stopped before the door and caught their breath before walking in, fortunately they were on time.

"Alright girls, take a seat." The teacher's eyes followed the girls into the classroom as she addressed them. "As I understand, Sunset it is your job to keep an eye on this young lady, so you may sit together during my lessons."

"Yay, where do we sit sunny?" Sonata asked Sunset.

"Over here, at the back." Sunset pointed to a couple of unoccupied desks.

"For those of you who don't know." The teacher glanced at Sonata. "We are learning about the sixtys. Since we've only just started this topic, none of us know to much about it yet, so it shouldn't be too hard to catch up. I don't know how much you already know, Sonata, so just ask Sunset to help you if you need it. Alright everyone, answer questions one to ten on page fifty-five in the work book. In silence!"

Sunset and Sonata both sat down, took out their pencil cases and opened the text books they were given. Sunset excelled in history, even though she wouldn't admit it before she was reformed, she had always been fascinated by human history. She looked over to the side to see how Sonata was doing, but when she looked at her book Sunset saw that Sonata had written more than her.

I'd better work a bit faster, I forgot Sonata is two-thousand year old mythical sea creature for a second there, she really doesn't act like one, thought Sunset, I wonder what the sixtys and all years before then, were really like, I'll have to remember to ask her at some point.

Sunset had written as fast as she could all lesson, just to make sure she didn't fall behind Sonata. She hoped her handwriting was legible, even though she'd been in the human world for years, her handwriting was far more messy than the other students' and rushing it didn't help to make it any clearer. Sunset had just finished when the bell went, but Sonata had finished quite a bit earlyer, so she'd just sat and doodled in her book until the lesson had finished. The two former Equestrians stood up at the sound of the bell and hurried out of the classroom.

"Sunny, it's lunch time!" Sonata started to run ahead of Sunset. "And today is taco Tuesday!"

"What?" Sunset unintentionally rammed into the other students, trying to catch up with Sonata. "Slow down, Sonata, there's enough tacos for everyone!"

Sunset and Sonata ran past Rainbow and Aria on the way to the canteen, Aria facepalmed when she realised where Sonata was going. "Come on, Softy, we've gotta catch up to that airhead so that I can give her some lunch money."

"Hey! I'm not soft! That kid is just a really big fan of mine, and I don't want to lose any fans," said Rainbow, "Besides, if anyone's soft it's you. Will you buy me a plushie if I get sick?"

"I don't have time for this, Skittles." Aria said, "We need to find Sonata."

"Don't have time? Or don't have a come back." Rainbow smirked at Aria after she finished saying the last bit. "But you're right, lets go and find Sonata."

Everyone except Aria and Rainbow were sat at a table in the canteen. They'd all already gotten their lunch and had sat down to eat, Sunset and Sonata were the exceptions, although Fluttershy only had a celery stick which could hardly be classed as 'lunch'. Sunset was waiting for the queue to die down before she went up to get her own lunch and Sonata didn't have any money on her. Sonata was staring longingly at the tacos until a purple finger tapped her on the shoulder.

"I think you might need this." Aria handed her some money.

"But we don't have any money, how are we going to afford anything else?" asked Sonata, "What about your lunch?"

"Don't worry, Sonata, we've got more money than this and I'm not that hungry anyway." Aria's stomach growled, she was obviously lying about the hunger part, and Sonata could tell. "Just go and get a taco, Sonata, I'll eat some food when we get home."

Aria sat down and Sunset went with Sonata to get some food, although Rainbow Dash had disappeared. Aria's stomach growled again and she looked around to see what everyone was eating, she rolled her eyes when she saw Fluttershy's celery stick, although Pinkie's carrots weren't much better and Applejack's food was unidentifiable. Aria was still looking round when Rainbow sat down opposite her, holding two trays. "Here." Rainbow pushed a tray towards her. "Thought you sounded a bit hungry, so I got you a sandwich."

"You shouldn-" Aria's stomach growled, interrupting her, so instead she just said, "Thank you."

"No problem, Softy," replied Rainbow.

Sunset and Sonata sat opposite each, next to Aria and Rainbow. They both had tacos, but Sonata had devoured hers before Sunset had even had two bites of her own. Sonata and Pinkie were first to finish, Aria and Rainbow were second after they wolfed down their food, although Aria ate so fast because she hadn't eaten in days and Rainbow wolfed down her food because she was a gobble-guts. Applejack took longer because she had the biggest portion, Rarity was savouring each bite and Sunset was trying to find the most easy and mess free way to eat a taco. Somehow, despite only having a celery stick, Fluttershy took the longest to eat her lunch. After everyone had eaten, Rainbow went to play sports and Aria had to go with her because their next lesson was together, Fluttershy went to help out at the animal shelter. Applejack and Rarity went to help their younger sister with some kind of project and Pinkie went to help out at sugar cube corner, leaving just Sunset and Sonata.

"Looks like it's just us two, Shimmy," Sonata said, excitedly, "What we gonna do now?"

"I normally help out my friends with whatever they're doing." Sunset got up from the table. "We could see if Applejack and Rarity need any help, or we could go and play some kind of sports with Rainbow and Aria."

"Why not both? We could see what Applejack and Rarity are doing and help them for a bit, and if it gets boring we could go and play with Rainbow and Aria," suggested Sonata.

"Sounds like a plan, but, Sonata?"

"Yeah?"

"You may want to eat the rest of you taco first, somehow half of it has ended up on your face."