Chapters A Dazzling Reformation
by Miffles
Emerald Blaze, a girl who'd only just started school, as everyone else had. The first day of school, the most dreaded day of all. Nobody wanted to go to school, unless of course you were Twilight Sparkle. Everyone knew that girl. She saved Canterlot High School--what?--twice now. Emerald had been amazed, but by now all of the excitement about Twilight's latest visit had died down. It was now a part of CHS's monthly routine. A few weeks pass, Twilight Sparkle appears, then the month ends. But a select few have been, and always will be excited about all of the girl's visits. Emerald had never personally met the mysterious Twilight, but she figured she seemed nice enough. After all, she'd saved their school twice. That required a lot of niceness, Emerald figured.
~.~.~.~
Emerald sighed. Yet another day of seemingly endless school. Even though it was only the second week of school, she was already tired of it. She flopped down on her bed, snuggling into her green comforter. She knew that she still had forever to go until the last day of school came, and she would have to manage survival until the end of senior year.
And then she graduated. Oh, wow. Even as that thought came upon her, she still remained unenthused. She hated school. Gym was a nightmare...Seriously? Soccer? She sprained her ankle last time she played soccer and now she hesitated every time she kicked the ball. Then her team blamed it all on her when they lost.
She figured she'd better start her homework, seeing as it was, like, five pages long. She probably should've just gotten it over with. She knew she had to, she knew she should've.
So why didn't she? It never got her into too much trouble before, so, why would it now?
~.~.~.~
"Late homework on the second week of school?" scolded Emerald Blaze's English teacher. Same thing always happened. The mean girls in the back giggled. The obsessed-with-sports kids ignored it, slumping in their undersized chairs. The geeks stared hard at the board, presumably correcting mistakes and soaking up information--as if they didn't already know it all. A few undecided people had blank, bored looks on their faces. The usual stuff for the second week of school.
In the middle of the teacher's lecture, the bell rang. Every student scrambled out of the room, rushing, as if they had somewhere important to be. "Emerald," began her teacher, Emerald bracing herself for "the Lecture, part two". "I know you can do better than this. I've seen your work, you have potential." Her voice was surprisingly soft and comforting. Emerald didn't fall for it. Teachers did this all the time here. Have you? Have you seen my potential? What potential? Emerald thought, scowling at the floor. It's only the second week of school. How could you see it yet? "You're right," came her teacher's voice.
Shoot! she thought urgently. Did I say it all out loud? She winced. What if she did? "And you can't be failing already. I'll see you at lunch today." Emerald walked out of the room, not uttering a single word.
~.~.~.~
After math, Emerald trekked to the lunch room. She got an egg salad sandwich and an orange, her usual lunch. She put a big, gloppy yogurt sundae on her tray and walked off to Mrs. Shaleta, her English teacher's room, her heels scuffing the floors. She sat down grudgingly at an empty desk. She plopped down her tray, and sat, waiting for Mrs. Shaleta's instructions.
"Here is a worksheet," she said, putting a piece of paper in front of Emerald. Emerald stared at the nearly endless worksheet, the kind you'd get in fifth grade. What am I, a child? "You are to complete it this period. If you don't finish, that's it. This won't count toward your actual grade, I just want to see exactly where you're at." For Emerald, this was like a test. Would she send Emerald to extra-help classes? What if she didn't do well? She answered the questions extra carefully, making sure to read over them thoroughly so she missed nothing. She scribbled down her answers in scrawly handwriting, then wrote her name at the top of the paper, barely legible. She put the sheet on Mrs. Shaleta's desk. Now, all she had to do was wait.
~.~.~.~
Twilight surprised Adagio, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Sonata, Sunset, Pinkie Pie and Aria when they found her leaning againsts the mirror in front of the school. They all (excluding Aria, Adagio and Sonata) gave her a group hug. Emerald walked out of the school, eyeing the strange group. She knew the cause of the commotion was probably this girl Twilight. She sat herself down on a step, plunking her backpack down next to her and searched through it frantically. Where is it? she thought, panicked, I didn't forget it, did I? The sighting of the paper calmed her, but she yanked it out of her bag.
Her eyes bore through it, at first barely understanding the words her teacher put at the top of her paper. She was in disbelief. She hadn't had a chance to even glance at it before the last bell of the day rang and she had to shove it into a backpack. It was a surprise that the paper hadn't ripped yet. The neat handwriting at the top of the page said it all, and calmed her anxiety.
100% Handwriting is too messy. Good job, otherwise!
Emerald basically died. She bounced up in down in excitement, her grin practically splitting her face in half. She felt eyes on her all of a sudden, immediately halting. She didn't dare open her eyes, but she cracked one open anyways. Emerald saw the group of girls in front of the mirror staring at her incredulously. A girl that she knew of as "Pinkie Pie" grinned at her, while the rest of the girls simply stared at her as if she'd gone insane. "Heh," Emerald chuckled awkwardly, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, paper in hand. She shuffled away as quickly as she could.
~.~.~.~
"Who was she?" questioned Sunset.
"She's Emerald Blaze," said Pinkie, "But she doesn't usually get that excited. She probably got a good gift or something!" Pinkie giggled, and then proceeded to skip around the mirror. "Hey!" the pink-haired girl suddenly yelled out, startling the rest of th girls. "Why don't we have a sleepover like last time?!"
"What a great idea, Pinkie! I haven't had one of those since..." Twilight pondered, then half-smiled, "Well, since last time I was here!" The rest of the girls agreed.
~.~.~.~
Sunset sat on the floor, gazing at the game of Mario Kart Wii that was currently being played by Applejack and Rainbow. They did this every sleepover, gaming until something exciting happened. "Ha!" cheered Rainbow, jumping up and dancing in a circle. Rainbow's half of the screen read, "You Win!" and Applejack's said, "You Lose!"
"Good game," Applejack said, putting her Wii-mote down. "So, who wants to go up against me?!" challenged Rainbow, smiling smugly in Applejack's general direction. Sonata immediately jumped up from the bed, where she was sitting with Pinkie, who was previously braiding her hair. She grabbed AJ's Wii-mote and grinned at Rainbow, who grinned back. Sonata switched her character to Toad, and Toad and Yoshi did their race. Adagio watched silently, Aria sitting grudgingly next to her.
Sunset's nails were currently being done by Rarity in a hot pink, while Twilight tried to figure out phones (with help from Pinkie).
"You guys are so advanced with technology!" Twilight exclaimed in amazement, closely examining the device in her hands. "We've only just invented the TV back in Equestria."
"Oh, yeah!" yelled Sonata, cheering.
"No way! I demand a rematch!" Rainbow said, "You cheated!"
"Sore loser," accused Sonata, sticking her tongue out, which earned a scolding from Adagio. "Sorry, Rainbow," Sonata apologized. The Dazzlings, while in the process of being reformed, were having a hard time getting used to the friendly lifestyle of the girls who befriended them. "Wanna go again?"
"You bet!"
Eacher girl nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard a huge, booming explosion.
"What was that?!" screamed Twilight, looking frantically around at the other girls. Everyone was too stunned to move.
~.~.~.~
Emerald shrieked, and bolted up out of her bed. She peered out the window cautiously, seeing a small building go up into flames. "Donut Joe's..." she murmured quietly, her expression being one of sadness. She sprinted down the stairs and threw a coat around her shoulders. She ran out into a summer-fall night barefoot. She looked into the distance, whipping her phone out of her pocket. She dialed 911 as fast as possible, holding her phone up to her ear. She told them the address, and they were there within minutes.
~.~.~.~
"You girls stay here!" commanded Twilight, but the girls didn't listen. They each grabbed some form of coverings for their arms, Sunset's being a blanket. They, once out there, gazed at the emergency vehicles pooling around the blazing building, obscuring their view.
"What happened?" asked Rarity, bewilderment painted on her face.
"I have no idea..." said Twilight.
Chapter Two
by Miffles
Rainbow jumped into Maud's car (with permission, of course), the rest of the girls following suit. Rainbow was the oldest of the nine girls, and therefore was the only one who had a license. Or, rather, the only one who had bothered to take their driver's test yet. She put the keys in, revved the engine and began towards Donut Joe's. The scene of the crime.
"What do you think happened?" asked Fluttershy, breaking the silence.
"I don't know," sighed Twilight, looking back towards the yellow-skinned girl from the passenger seat.
"I really loved Donut Joe's." sighed Pinkie, "Even though he was competition, I went there a few times. His donuts were pretty great..."
"You've gone over there? You can do that?" questioned Sunset.
"Sure I can!" said Pinkie, "It's like you going to another school's football game, or something." Pinkie pondered for good examples. "Kinda like visiting another unive--oh, right, you guys can't do that yet." Sunset looked at Pinkie, confused.
"Sure, whatever, Pinkie." she giggled, wrapping her yellow and red blanket around her tighter.
"Can't ya' go any faster, Dash? A snail could pass us!" remarked Applejack, the only girl noticing how slow the vehicle was going. Everyone else was too preoccupied with their conversations.
"Traffic," growled Rainbow, her knuckles turning white at how hard she was gripping the steering wheel. AJ sighed in exasperation. Of course it was traffic. It's always traffic.
Rarity asked the Dazzlings if they'd ever seen anything like this, to which Adagio replied, "We haven't had much experience with fire...what with, y'know, living in the sea and everything." Adagio scoffed at Rarity's thoughtlessness, but immediately caught herself. "Sirens." She explained further. The girls seemed to forget that pretty often. Forget that the girls were sirens. Well, it made sense, considering that they were only getting used to the fact that Twilight was from a world with talking ponies. They often got very confused when Twilight slipped up and said "everypony" instead of "everybody". Their conversation overlapped with Aria and Sonata's conversation.
"What do you know about good donuts?" Sonata demanded.
"More than you," Aria frowned at the blue-haired girl.
"Do not." Sonata clenched her fist.
"Do so." Aria messed up Sonata's hair.
"Do not!" Sonata fixed her bangs. She huffed, blowing some stray hairs out of her face, turning away from Aria. Aria folded her arms and stared out the window at the cars and emergency vehicles.
"It's like you being able to use your magic as a unicorn! It's easy, Sunset!" Pinkie said cheerfully, finally having come up with a good example. Sunset gasped in understanding.
"Ohh! So it's like--" Sunset stopped mid-sentence and looked down to the piece of paper prodding at Pinkie's arm. "Uh, Pinkie, I think someone needs to give you something?" Pinkie took the paper from the blue hand of Sonata, and unfolded it. It read, "Dear Pinkie, I need to talk to you tomorrow. Sonata." Pinkie noted that there was a heart with a music note over it. Pinkie nodded back at Sonata, smiling, as usual. Even as a crazy party thrower, who was usually over-enthusiastic, she understood when stuff needed to be kept private. And since Sonata handed her a note instead of just saying it when they were so close together, she figured it was meant to be kept totally between the two of them.
"And the sprinkles!" Sonata daydreamed to Aria, who was ignoring her. She drooled, not bothering to wipe it away.
"You know what color would look great on you?" Rarity said all of a sudden to Adagio, eyes sparkling. "Violet!"
"Oh, uh, thanks? Just my nails...right?" Adagio confirmed nervously. Rarity nodded eagerly. "Fine."
"Finally!" exclaimed Rainbow, sighing in relief. They'd pulled into a parking spot. "Here, we've got a good enough view about what's going on. Roll down your windows." They all did as told, aside from the girls in the very back (the Dazzlings), who peered out of either Sunset or Pinkie's windows.
"Who could've done this?" Fluttershy asked, looking away from the disastrous scene. Twilight, all of a sudden, swung her door open urgently and began to sprint towards a black, shadowy figure.
"Stop!" Twilight commanded, presumably to the figure she was chasing. The person ran faster. Twilight, in an effort to keep up, ran faster. She tripped over a rock, landing almost face first. Fluttershy got out of the car, running to Twilight and helping her up.
"Are you hurt?" Fluttershy began to examine the purple-skinned girl, checking for any scrapes or bruises.
"Just a scrape," Twilight said idly, trying to take off again.
"No, you can't go." Fluttershy said, "I mean, if that's okay with you."
"But they're--"
"Applejack and Rainbow are taking care of it." As if on cue, Rainbow and AJ turned the corner, panting.
"We--" pant, "--couldn't--" pant, "c--catch--" pant, "--them..." Rainbow said, doubled over. Twilight sighed in despair.
"Are you sure? Did you happen to see their faces? If you did, what did they look like?" Twilight bombarded them with more questions. They just shook their heads. The girls gathered in Maud's car, silence hanging in the air for the entire ride home. When they returned, each exhausted girl took out their pajamas and slipped into bed. All except for three girls.
Chapter Two
By Miffles
"This is our chance!" Adagio said, as if it were obvious. "We solve the mystery, we are proved! That's what Sunset did,"
"Just because Sunset did it means that it will work for us?" Aria scoffed.
"That's not what I mean. I mean if we prove ourselves by doing something good, they won't hate us."
"Who says they hate us now?" The two girls broke out into a fight.
"Stop!" Sonata yelled, then immediately she was shushed by her fellow Dazzlings. "Fine. So maybe Sunset did that too, and it worked. Sunset is different from us, but the girls might have the same reaction--they'd forgive her. And they'd forgive us."
"But they already said--" piped in Adagio.
"--that they forgive us, but come on, we all know that isn't a hundred and one percent true." Sonata finished, placing a hand on her hip. "How couldn't they forgive us if we practically save the world? Or, Canterlot at least." Aria and Adagio stood with their mouths agape. Sonata was being smart for once.
"So how do you all of a sudden know them so well?" Aria said, smirking.
Gosh, does that taco-hater always have to be so negative? "I don't have to. They're pretty easy people to read, if you ask me."
"We didn't ask you."
"Yeah? Well, you're just--"
"Idiot! How could you even figure that--?"
"Easy for you to say! You're really--!"
"Says the--"
"Stop!" Adagio practically screamed, immediately being shushed, just as Sonata had been. A scowl snaked it's way onto her expression as she folded her arms. "Look, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but Sonata's right." Sonata squealed. "And even if they don't forgive us, we've been doing...moderately...well on this whole friendship thing. We'll just make friends elsewhere."
Aria scoffed, "As if it's that easy."
"Are you completely missing the point of what it means to be nice? I know you're automatically snarky with everybody, but just because you haven't had the best life doesn't mean you need to make everyone else unhappy with you," the girl said. The other two were shocked. "At least me and Adagio are trying! You haven't changed much at all. You can only take the negative spin on anything and everything, and maybe if you didn't, we wouldn't have it so bad! We might not be sitting here trying to figure out how to save the stupid world and all of it's delicious tacos!"
"You're blaming this all on me? Maybe if you weren't so stupid and ditzy, you wouldn't be scolded all the time. I'm not the only one at fault here!" Aria spat back. Sonata's eyes welled up with tears as she ran up the stairs, presumably to the bathroom. Aria looked at Adagio, the guilty feeling written all over her face. "What did I just do?"
"You both just messed up, it's up to you to fix it."
The next morning, Rarity, Adagio and Maud were the only three up. Of course, it was 6am, but they were early birds. Maud had begun the coffee, presumably up hours before the other two. Adagio had grabbed a plain purple mug, whilst Rarity grabbed one engraved with her cutie mark. Maud had a grey one, and they all took turns pouring coffee, creamer and/or sugar into their mugs.
Rarity sat at the table, across from where Adagio had placed herself. Maud had stuck around, surprisingly. Usually she would run off to her room after getting her coffee, but after a talk with Pinkie, she'd been convinced to socialize a bit.
"As you both most likely know, already, I'm Maud, Pinkie Pie's sister." Maud finally spoke, her monotone voice never failing. Adagio and Rarity nodded in reply, Rarity's hands resting on her lap while Adagio was holding her mug tight, as if she were afraid it'd run away. She was tense, but had done well at perfecting hiding her emotions. She didn't need constant snarky remarks from Aria about her current emotional state, or never-ending questions from Sonata like "Why are you so sad looking, 'Dagi?"
"Pinkie told me to socialize more. As far as she's told me, you're Adagio," Maud pointed to the orange-haired girl, who responded with a nod, "And you're Rarity. Of course, I knew that already." And Rarity looked flattered for a split-second, before Maud interrupted with, "Considering she's constantly babbling about you." Rarity had expected as much.
"Well," Adagio started, "I suppose I don't have an outstanding reputation, do I?"
"Not really, no," Maud replied. "But I don't hold grudges."
Adagio was slightly surprised to hear that, but kept her emotional mask on. "Do I have to do something crazy to prove myself to you anyway?"
"I've seen the way you act with them. It's enough for me."
Adagio still couldn't have been more stunned, but kept her cool. "That's good." Maud nodded in reply, probably not bothering any more with Adagio.
"Since you already know of me, I do not need an introduction, correct?" Rarity butted in, making sure she was right.
"Well, we haven't officially met yet, so fire away." Maud gave a slight nod, sipping from her mug. Rarity gave her introduction, and Maud listened, although she didn't seem interested. Or uninterested. Adagio figured only Pinkie would be able to read her sister.
Adagio's mind hadn't been paying attention to Rarity's actual introduction (even though it should have been), instead focused intently on Aria and Sonata's fight last night. It'd been not her problem, but she still wanted to fix it. And then she knew something was wrong with her, because she wanted to fix it.
That stupid rainbow. Adagio cursed it mentally, before reminding herself to hide her emotions. Because she knew her face had been doing the thing.
"Something wrong?" Rarity piped up, and then the former siren realized both Rarity and Maud were staring at her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She didn't even bother with an excuse, because she'd learned long ago that it would get her nowhere. She'd only stumble over her words and come up with a completely unbelievable excuse. So she just forgot about it.
And Rarity babbled on while Adagio and Maud absently sipped their coffee. The alabaster-skinned girl continued on long after the coffee was gone from all three mugs, her lips moving impossibly fast. And Adagio figured this was how she usually was when she talked about herself because there was just so much to talk about. Too much, Adagio felt.
And the trio sat there for an hour just sharing their own stories.
It was refreshing, and Adagio felt she'd made new friends. Real ones.
And while Maud may not admit it, both she and Rarity felt the same way.
And Adagio smiled.
